Head coach Ronald Koeman has admitted \u201cour opponents had more fear when [Lionel] Messi was here\u201d after Saturday\u2019s 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao.
\nThe Catalans \u2013 who witnessed Spain centre-back Eric Garcia dismissed at the death – required a 75th-minute leveller from Netherlands addition Memphis Depay to return unbeaten from San Mames Barria. Inigo Martinez had given the hosts a 50th-minute lead.
\n“I don’t like to always talk about the same thing, but we’re talking about the best in the world. Our opponents had more fear when Messi was here,” said Koeman, whose charges began life minus the Argentina icon last weekend with a 4-2 win against another Basque side in Real Sociedad.
\n“For us as well, if you pass the ball to Leo, usually he won’t lose it. You can tell [Messi] isn’t there.
\n“We know that and we can’t change it.”
\nBarcelona \u2013 who finished third last term \u2013 next host Getafe on Sunday, prior to the international break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Head coach Ronald Koeman has admitted \u201cour opponents had more fear when [Lionel] Messi was here\u201d after Saturday\u2019s 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao.
\nThe Catalans \u2013 who witnessed Spain centre-back Eric Garcia dismissed at the death \u2013 required a 75th-minute leveller from Netherlands addition Memphis Depay to return unbeaten from San Mames Barria. Inigo Martinez had given the hosts a 50th-minute lead.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t like to always talk about the same thing, but we\u2019re talking about the best in the world. Our opponents had more fear when Messi was here,\u201d said Koeman, whose charges began life minus the Argentina icon last weekend with a 4-2 win against another Basque side in Real Sociedad.
\n\u201cFor us as well, if you pass the ball to Leo, usually he won\u2019t lose it. You can tell [Messi] isn\u2019t there.
\n\u201cWe know that and we can\u2019t change it.\u201d
\nBarcelona \u2013 who finished third last term \u2013 next host Getafe on Sunday, prior to the international break.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117840,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117839\/revisions\/117840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}