Barcelona will not be knocked off course by their 3-1 defeat at Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday despite being outplayed in the second half by Pep Guardiola’s fired-up side, the Catalan club’s manager Luis Enrique said.
The Spanish champions are second in La Liga two points behind arch rivals Real Madrid and face a testing game on Sunday at high-flying Sevilla, who are a point behind them, with Luis Enrique declaring they would not dwell on the City defeat.
“We have to get up and keep going. We never sit back when we win and we don’t sink when we lose. Defeats are everyone’s responsibility, above all the coach’s, and we’re going to keep getting better,” he said.
Barca suffered scathing criticism from the Catalan press for their collapse at the Etihad stadium, with the daily Sport declaring that “Barca got themselves into a twist” and “threw away a game that was half won, overpowered by City’s intensity”.
Mundo Deportivo, meanwhile, likened Barca’s surrender in the second half, after they took an early lead, to a power cut.
Luis Enrique emphasised Barca’s domination of City for most of the first period, in which Lionel Messi scored, but conceded that they never recovered from Sergi Roberto’s misplaced pass which allowed Ilkay Guendogan to level before the break.
“This is how it is, this isn’t a drinks machine where you hit a button and a can of Coke comes out. If anyone turned their TV off after 40 minutes they wouldn’t have believed we lost the game,” the Barca boss.
“We played scandalously well for 40 minutes but we committed a huge error that really harmed us. It was 40 minutes for us, 50 for them, and the result reflects how the game went. In games like this you always pay for your errors.”
Striker Luis Suarez added: “We’re aware of how well we played in the first half but... we have to be self critical because we did not play well in the second half.
“We have to take positive and negative conclusions from the game. Now we have to forget about the Champions League for a bit and think about Sevilla.”

Champions League results
Ludogorets (BUL) 2 (Cafu 12, Keseru 15) Arsenal (ENG) 3 (Xhaka 20, Giroud 41, Ozil 87)

Basel (SUI) 1 (Zuffi 76) PSG (FRA) 2 (Matuidi 43, Meunier 90)

Besiktas (TUR) 1 (Quaresma 79-pen) Napoli (ITA) 1 (Hamsik 82)

Benfica (POR) 1 (Salvio 45+2-pen) Dynamo Kiev (UKR) 0

Borussia M’gladbach (GER) 1 (Stindl 32) Celtic (SCO) 1 (Dembele 76-pen)

Man City (ENG) 3 (Gundogan 39, 74, De Bruyne 51) Barcelona (ESP) 1 (Messi 21)

Atletico Madrid (ESP) 2 (Griezmann 28, 90+3) Rostov (RUS) 1 (Azmoun 30)

PSV Eindhoven (NED) 1 (Arias 14) Bayern Munich (GER) 2 (Lewandowski 34-pen, 74)