Luis Enrique hails 'complete' Barcelona performance on his 100-game mark
Barcelona made short work of Levante with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium, and manager Luis Enrique hailed his team for a collective performance, despite facing a tough second-half challenge against the league's last-place club.
"We finished them off at the end but we had to work hard for the entire match," Enrique told reporters. "My team did everything necessary to win the game, we put in a complete performance and that's why we finished the job.
"It helps if you don't give the opposition time on the ball because they can create good spells."
While it may have felt like a normal La Liga fixture, there was a little asterisk beside this match - with the win, Barcelona has matched a 28-game unbeaten record once achieved under Pep Guardiola.
That Barcelona controlling the flow of the game wasn't so much a surprise to Enrique, as his side often has a foothold on any given match; instead, Enrique commented on Levante's surprising second-half performance, one that saw the Blaugrana face a few dangerous chances from their Valencian opposition.
"We expected them to take more risks after they went 1-0 down because they had nothing to lose," Enrique said. "These games can always be difficult. We kept on creating chances, and so did they. Even though Levante could have gone in at half-time level, I think this is a fair result."
Still, a win is a win, and Enrique will celebrate it all the same, regardless of its record-matching feat, or the fact that this 2-0 victory also marks his 100th match at the helm of Barcelona.
"When the season finishes I'll tell you whether or not the record has been of use to us," Enrique said. "It's good to reach 100 games, it's better than 50, but statistics don't tell me anything. I'm more interested in group objectives, like winning league titles."
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