PARIS: Barcelona coach Luis Enrique refused to point the finger at his defence after the Catalans went down 3-2 to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in Champions League Group F on Tuesday.
"I don't like to evaluate individual performances when we lose a game,” he said after suffering his first defeat since being appointed in the summer. “We are all responsible, above all me.
"We will analyse in depth what we did wrong to try and ensure these things don't happen again."
Barca had received praise after going unbeaten through their opening seven matches this season, keeping seven clean sheets in the process.
However, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen selected in goal rather than Claudio Bravo and with Gerard Pique left on the bench, Barca's defence was made to look ordinary.
David Luiz put the French champions ahead in the 10th minute, and PSG's smallest player Marco Verratti was allowed to head in a corner to make it 2-1 after Lionel Messi had equalised with his 68th Champions League goal.
Blaise Matuidi added a third, and while Neymar pulled another one back, Barcelona could not equalise and slumped to a fifth loss in nine Champions League away games.
"We committed very clear errors in bringing the ball out from the back," added Enrique. "From set-pieces they are very strong, and when you are behind it requires an awful lot of effort to try and get back into the game."
Meanwhile, it was a night of great satisfaction for Paris coach Laurent Blanc, who had been under growing pressure following his team's sluggish start to the season, even if they have yet to lose a match.
Pellegrini rues City’s carelessness
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini said his side need to sharpen up their act after they were held 1-1 by Roma in their second Champions League Group E game.
After 38-year-old Roma captain Francesco Totti cancelled out Sergio Aguero's early penalty with a goal that made him the oldest scorer in Champions League history, City had most of the play, but lacked ideas in attack.
"Every time you don't reach the result you want, there's a lot of different things you could do," said Pellegrini.
"Today [Tuesday] we weren't very accurate with our passing and when we lost the ball, maybe we didn’t have enough midfielders to cover.
"But I don't think that was the reason. The main problem was we lost many easy passes."
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho enjoyed a happy return to his native city of Lisbon as Chelsea defeated Sporting Lisbon 1-0 in Champions League Group G action to take them to the top of the group after Schalke 04 and MK Maribor drew 1-1 in Germany to leave them on two points apiece and Sporting bottom with one point.
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