Valverde: Villarreal draw shows how difficult La Liga is
"You cannot think that any game will be easy, you have to fight until the end"
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde defined is side's 4-4 draw with Villarreal as a "crazy game which shows the difficulty of the league."
Valverde said: "There were moments in which you could see that we could win without problems, later there were moments in which Villarreal did us damage and at the end we turned it around. This shows how difficult La Liga is. You cannot think that any game will be easy, you have to fight until the end."
Barça made a number of changes for the game. Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic were among the players left on the bench.
"When you make changes, you think it's for the best," Valverde added. "Things are how they are. Pique has four yellow cards and we thought it was a risk he could get the fifth [and miss the Atletico game] and he hadn't rested [in La Liga] yet. One of those risking a suspension had to play and it was Arturo Vidal."
luis suárez
After giving up a 2-0 lead to trail 4-2, late goals from Messi (another free kick) and Luis Suarez salvaged a point in stoppage time.
"Suarez is a player that never gives up, that always appears in the right place at the right time," Valverde said. "Against Espanyol [Messi] went over the wall, this time he whipped it in off the post. I think he's breaking records [with all these free kicks]."
Finally, the coach admitted "we would have liked all three points" but recognised Barça "have the good sensation of having comeback. We always want to win, but things were bleak going into the final few minutes."
