Messi isn't Barcelona's only piece of art - Luis Enrique

The head coach credited Pep Guardiola for sticking to his philosophy but heaped praise on his players for the way they dismantled Bayern in the final 20 minutes
Luis Enrique says Lionel Messi is not the only "piece of art" in Barcelona's ranks after his team tore Bayern Munich apart late on in a 3-0 win in Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg.



Messi unsurprisingly stole the show as he continued his amazing season with a late double before Neymar made it three goals in 13 minutes in injury time.

However, the Argentine's coach was eager to praise his entire side as they restricted Bayern to just a handful of chances and avoided conceding an away goal.

"Guardiola's tactics were according to his style, his team and his philosophy," Enrique said of his former team-mate. "And we played the same as we always do.

"Messi no longer surprises me. He has ambition and hunger, but I would not say Messi is the only piece of art at Barca. The work of the whole team was incredible on top of the fact we didn't concede any goals."

The Camp Nou win leaves Barca with one foot in the Champions League final and, though Enrique admits the showing could not have been any better, he is aware there are still 90 minutes for the Bavarians to conjure up a sensational shock.

"We are a little closer to the final now," the head coach conceded. "It was the perfect result that takes us a little closer to Berlin, but we still have a second leg to navigate.

"I am enormously pleased with everything my players did. We defeated a team of huge ability. Their players barely had a sniff at goal and that's just as pleasing. It was simply a brilliant result."

Barcelona have a Liga clash at home to David Moyes' Real Sociedad - whom they lost to in their first game of 2015 - to look forward to before travelling to face Bayern in next Tuesday's second leg at the Allianz Arena.

Source: Goal

Well messi is not the only art of barcelona, yeah i totally agree with luis enrique cos everybody in the team played his role well and that led into the glorious victory of barcelona. The couch also played his tactics well and studied the bayern side to dominate into the game more before messi saved the day with his two strikes which gave the motivation to all the players that there is still hope to add more goals even if the time left are few. Few minutes later, an assist from the same messi to naymer which sealed their lead in the game. I think the whole barca team did well by replying to bayern what they did to them in 2012/2013 champions league season.

Well, i dont agree with Liuz Enrique .... Frankly speaking we all saw that in the first half, Barca could have lead by about 4 or 5 goals but due to some poor finishing by Lius Suarez, they couldn't... The way Barca build up their play is such that Messi's influence is very essential to make it successful... In football, putting the ball at the back of the opponents net is what is very important..

Other than that, why not keep possessing the ball for full 90+ added minutes and see if you will win without scoring... He has to praise his team because he wants to be partial and keep his team focused for the games ahead... But we all know that if Messi is not in form, Barca struggles... The whole team struggles because they've built the team around the genius of Messi.... He gave an assist to Neymar and scored two brilliant goals, the second of which was a goal of BEAUTY....

For someone who has scored about 50 goals in all competitions and provided so many assists in addition, its very hard to deny the fact that without him, the team could have still produced a similar result.. When they lost heavily against Bayern in the 2012/2013 champs league, Messi was half fit and we all realized how his absence did them lots of harm.... I dont like Barca but Lionel Messi is a masterclass and so exciting to watch.....