Barcelona coach Luis Enrique: Thomas Vermaelen quality never in doubt

29 August 2015 23:01

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique insisted he was "not surprised" that it was Thomas Vermaelen who came to his side's rescue as they saw off Malaga thanks to the defender's late winner.

While Lionel Messi had four shots saved by the visitors on-form goalkeeper Carlos Kameni and fellow forwards Neymar and Luis Suarez also came unstuck against Malaga's defence, it fell to the Belgian in the 73rd minute to power home the only goal of what was a testing game for the Primera Division champions.

The goal was Vermaelen's first since moving from Arsenal in summer 2014, with a chronic hamstring problem limiting him to just one competitive game last season, but Luis Enrique never lost faith in the 29-year-old.

"We knew of his quality when we signed him, but unfortunately he got injured," Luis Enrique said. "It's one of those coincidences of life that he has scored the winner for us today.

"I wasn't surprised that he scored because he is an expert in the air and is very dangerous at set-pieces. He has a lot of character and although there have been some doubts about his fitness, and he is still not 100 percent fit, there has never been any doubt about his quality."

Despite the fact Barcelona left it late to see off Malaga, who kept two clean sheets against the Catalans last season and beat them at the Nou Camp, Luis Enrique was pleased with his team's performance.

"You can often become desperate in games like this, but we were very good today and the fans were patient," he added. "We knew that it wouldn't be decided until the end, but we were the better side.

"Malaga are a very hard-working team who defend very well. We expected a game like this and we had planned for it and worked on it. We had to keep trying to move the ball around a lot and quickly and not lose our structure."

Barcelona had two penalty appeals turned down in the first half, one for a handball by Malaga defender Miguel Torres and the other a late challenge by Marcos Angeleri on Luis Suarez, but Luis Enrique did not criticise referee Santiago Jaime Latre's performance.

"You have to learn to deal with not getting decisions," he said.

"You get some in your favour and some against you, but I try not to waste my time thinking about them and I hope my players don't either."

Source: PA