Luis Enrique Defends Messi And Luis Suarez's Penalty

Coach of Barcelona Luis Enrique has come out to say that the suggestions that Barcelona's 'Cruyff' penalty was intended to embarrass Celta Vigo is false claiming he had seen Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi produce moments of magic in training.

With Barca leading Celta Vigo 3-1 at the Camp Nou, Messi stunned the crowd by tapping an 81st-minute penalty to the side for Suarez, who raced into the box and fired past bewildered goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez. The goal took Suarez onto 23 in the league this season Barca eased to 6-1 win. Speaking with reporters Enrique said “There will be those who like it and those who don't, as well as winning titles, here we try to entertain people and win in a spectacular and sporting manner. You can take a penalty like that, it's legal and there's a Cruyff penalty we all know”

Dutch great Cruyff, who played and managed Barca during his illustrious career, pulled off a similar trick while playing for Ajax against Helmond Sport in 1982, squaring the ball for team mate Jesper Olsen, who then passed it back to him to score. Enrique revealed it was not something he would try saying “I wouldn't dare take it like that because I'd fall over when I put my foot on the ball”

The Barca coach added there was nothing arrogant about Messi's penalty and said there was a tendency in Spain to look down on moments of skill. He said “In this country, a kick at an opponent is more readily accepted than anything fancy. We don't care about that. What we have to do is enjoy our football, respect our opponents, try to show we're better through football. I'm sorry but I don't think anything special happened. I'm used to seeing them train and there they are even better”