Luis Enrique makes plea to 'p***** off' Barcelona fans

Joe Wright

Luis Enrique makes plea to 'p***** off' Barcelona fans image

Luis Enrique has called on Barcelona's "p***** off" fans to get behind the side when they face Real Sociedad on Saturday.

LaLiga's champions were dispatched in ruthless fashion by Juventus on Wednesday, going down 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

Barca recovered from a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain to record a spectacular 6-1 second-leg triumph, but the likelihood of emulating that comeback looks slim.

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Luis Enrique accepts responsibility for the damaging defeat but wants the supporters to encourage his downbeat stars at Camp Nou this weekend before they prepare for Juve's visit next week.

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"It's obvious that I'm most responsible," he told a news conference. "It's my mistake. I get angry when objectives are not achieved. The maximum responsibility for each defeat always lies with the coach.

"It's normal for the fans to be p***** off. The idea is that we have to win.

"My advice is that they whistle at the end of the season. If they want to whistle at me, which they do, I don't lose the ball.

"I know it'll be a delicate moment for the players. I want them to encourage all the players.

"It's not my worst moment. They've been intense years - it's been no different when it's been better. I'm used to everything."

Luis Enrique said that he will not experiment with a radical change to his tactical approach when Juve come to Catalonia and stressed that his focus is on beating Sociedad to keep their domestic title hopes alive.

"I've never had doubts about the system, about how we hurt the opposition," he said. "I wasn't wrong in terms of my decisions.

"You need a profile to be able to make each system a more potent one. I'm not going to invent anything. I use the qualities of my players.

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"If we have the same luck we did in Turin, it'll be bad. We had a lot of chances to score goals. They made the most of our bad first half in attack and defence.

"Juve don't concede many goals but I don't forget their game against Napoli [when they lost 3-2 on April 5]. We'll take risks as always - ones that are necessary. We have to get one goal less than we did against PSG.

"But I'm not worried about Juve. We have to look for chemistry with the fans. I'm concerned about la Real."

Joe Wright

Joe Wright Photo

Joe is a Senior Editor at Sporting News. He was previously a sub editor and writer for Goal.com before spending six years as part of the Stats Perform editorial news service, covering major global sports including football, tennis, boxing, NBA, rugby union and athletics. Joe has reported live on some of the biggest games in football, including two UEFA Champions League finals, Euro 2016, the Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup final at the end of a month in Russia.