Luis Enrique unconcerned by Real's lead

Luis Enrique

The Catalan giants headed to Coliseum Alfonso Perez hoping to shorten Real's lead at the top to two points after the pacesetters beat Almeria 4-1 on Friday, but they ultimately left the capital disappointed.

Lionel Messi saw a couple of chances go begging, with goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and the crossbar denying the Argentinian.

Barca piled the pressure on towards the end, but Getafe held firm at the back, with on-loan Atletico Madrid man Emiliano Velazquez and his partner Naldo impressing.

But Luis Enrique is not concerned about his men slipping further behind Real in the title race, reminding critics that there is still over half of the campaign remaining.

"There is a lot of the championship to play," he told reporters. "We have been first with four points more than the [team in] second and now we are four points behind. 

"Obviously, we would like to be on the top but La Liga is like this. We have to accept that, try to improve and make self-criticism. 

"So, we have to analyse what we can improve but we already knew this was a difficult game. We did our best against a tough rival."

Despite dropping points, Luis Enrique was content with his team's display at Getafe, claiming their performance would have attracted praise had their finishing been better. 

He added: "I think we were much better than them [Getafe]. Despite how difficult it is to play against Getafe, we had a lot of chances. 

"You can make any interpretations about the game, but if we had scored any of our chances, we would be talking about a good Barca performance."

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