Madrid: Barcelona coach Luis Enrique backed his misfiring strikers to find their form after the European champions were beaten 2-1 at Sevilla on Saturday.
The Catalans were without the injured Lionel Messi, but still had 28 shots on goal as Luis Suarez and Neymar failed to find a way past Sergio Rico in the Sevilla goal until a late penalty from the Brazilian pulled a goal back.
“It was a game in which both sides had a lot of chances, it is almost incredible that we go away from here having scored just one goal after seeing the ball ping around the opposition box,” said Enrique.
“We have players of the highest level, you only have to look at their numbers.
“As coaches we always look to have the greatest number of chances possible because the individual talents of those players will finish them. That is the difference between those stars and other players.
“We are far from having our best numbers in that facet of the game in general from the whole team since the start of the season, but that will change for sure, I don’t have any doubt.”
Barca have now lost two of their last three league games and can be passed by either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid in the table when the capital city rivals face each other late on Sunday.
And Enrique refused to take any solace in the fact that his side had dominated large spells of the game despite being shorn of Andres Iniesta as well as Messi.
“There is no one that can be happy at Barca when you lose. It doesn’t matter that we created a lot of chances. The objective is always to win and if you don’t you cannot be happy.”
Suarez insisted that his boss hadn’t given him or Neymar any special instructions on how to cope without Messi and admitted his culpability in passing up a series of first-half chances to put the visitors in front.
“We did enough to at least not lose the game,” said the Uruguayan.
“In the first half was when we missed our chance to go in front. They started the second half very quickly. We reacted enough to get back into the game at 2-1 and had a lot of shots from outside the area that were blocked, but we did all we could to not lose the game.
“They scored a great first goal and you have to give credit to the opponents as well. The second one surprised us a bit more.
“The team showed its character in a difficult moment to try and turn the game around.”
Sevilla, who had won just once in six league games prior to Barca’s visit, took control early in the second half as Michael Krohn-Dehli timed his run into the box to sweep home Kevin Gameiro’s dangerous low cross.
The Dane was also involved in the second six minutes later, as his floated cross was nodded home by Vicente Iborra.
Rico then pulled off a hat-trick of brilliant saves from Neymar in a two-minute period to prevent the visitors an instant response.
However, Barca were gifted a route back into the game 16 minutes from time, when Sandro’s effort cannoned off Benoit Tremoulinas’s hand and the referee pointed to the spot.
Neymar had missed a penalty in Messi’s absence against Las Palmas last weekend, but finally managed to squeeze the ball past Rico to halve the deficit.
Sevilla had to withstand relentless pressure in the closing stages, but Sandro’s effort against the post from Suarez’s low cross was the closest Luis Enrique’s men came to salvaging a point.
