Messi now has 11 league goals, two more than Cristiano Ronaldo who earlier scored for Real Madrid in a 2-0 win over Celta Vigo that kept Madrid eight points behind the Catalan side.
“We’ll take the positives from the match,” said Vilanova. “There were a lot of goals and we controlled the game with 10 men for a long time. Leo (Messi) has travelled a long way this week but he was still incredible.”
Meanwhile, Deportivo coach Jose Luis Oltra had mixed feelings on the defeat.
“It’s a strange result,” said Oltra. “We let in 5 goals, but we scored 4 and against Barca, I think the fans will be happy with our performance. We’ll keep trying to achieve things for them.”
The 5-4 victory helped Barcelona go three points clear of Atletico Madrid.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo upped his league score of the season to nine as he and Gonzalo Higuain hit a goal apiece for Real Madrid against Celta Vigo.
Madrid’s assistant coach Aitor Karanka said that putting pressure on their opponents early on was part of the game plan.
“We knew if we let them have the ball they would give us problems because they can play good passing football, so we went out to pressure them and not let them settle down to their usual game,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2012.
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