Sergio Busquets thought Sunday's 5-1 victory against Real Madrid showed that Barcelona are a great team even without Lionel Messi.
The Argentina international is currently recovering from an arm injury but he was not needed in El Clasico as Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick at Camp Nou and Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal also got on the scoresheet.
"It's a great achievement to win 5-1 without Messi," Busquets said afterwards. "Normally, when we have trouble, Leo helps us out but today the team stepped up."
The result leaves Barca seven points ahead of ninth-placed Real Madrid, but Ernesto Valverde is still counting down the days until Messi is fit again.
The Barcelona coach said of Messi: "For us, since last week when he got injured, we were probably thinking how we would respond on the pitch.
"There's only one answer, you have to respond as a team and that's what we've done. The result could have been different but that's the only answer we can give you.
"We're delighted for the team but obviously the sooner he's back the better for us because we miss him. We want him back tomorrow."
Barcelona, 4/11 to win La Liga this season, face Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday. They can be backed at 6/1 win the match 3-0 while they are 5/1 to win the Champions League.
View all Soccer betting
Sergio Busquets thought Sunday's 5-1 victory against Real Madrid showed that Barcelona are a great team even without Lionel Messi.
The Argentina international is currently recovering from an arm injury but he was not needed in El Clasico as Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick at Camp Nou and Philippe Coutinho and Arturo Vidal also got on the scoresheet.
"It's a great achievement to win 5-1 without Messi," Busquets said afterwards. "Normally, when we have trouble, Leo helps us out but today the team stepped up."
The result leaves Barca seven points ahead of ninth-placed Real Madrid, but Ernesto Valverde is still counting down the days until Messi is fit again.
The Barcelona coach said of Messi: "For us, since last week when he got injured, we were probably thinking how we would respond on the pitch.
"There's only one answer, you have to respond as a team and that's what we've done. The result could have been different but that's the only answer we can give you.
"We're delighted for the team but obviously the sooner he's back the better for us because we miss him. We want him back tomorrow."
Barcelona, 4/11 to win La Liga this season, face Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday. They can be backed at 6/1 win the match 3-0 while they are 5/1 to win the Champions League.
Source: bet365.com