Miserable World Cup campaign a distant memory after new manager defeats England and Croatia in first two gamesAt the end of Spain’s Nations League game against Croatia in Elche, Luis Enrique was asked how he felt. “Embarrassed,” said the new coach. He was not talking about the way his team had played, he was talking about the moment fans began singing his name. Managers here are not often serenaded, national team coaches even less so, and certainly not after two games in charge. Yet there was no mistaking the sound coming from the stands at the Martínez Valero. That was Luis Enrique’s name ringing round.“I didn’t expect it,” he admitted but then they didn’t expect this, either. It is eight...
Barça coach takes his team to face Real Madrid at the Bernabéu having lost the initiative in battle for La Liga title and a gory goodbye awaits him if they loseLuis Enrique’s final days at the Camp Nou are dark ones and they could get even darker yet. That is how he sees it, at least – a dystopian vision of his immediate future, a gory goodbye as his time at Barcelona comes to a grisly end. After their superb 3-0 victory over Sevilla on 5 April, hope briefly emerging after an impressive run, the Barcelona coach said that he’d had a great time but insisted that if and when they lost “a cannibal holocaust” would be released.Three days later,...
The manager did things his way in revealing his departure but, despite all he has achieved in a relentless job, few tears were shed around the La Liga clubAt the press conference before Barcelona’s match with Sporting Gijón on Wednesday Luis Enrique was asked if he felt tired, worn out by the demands of being manager at the Camp Nou. He had been a little edgy of late, after all – even for him. “No,” he said, a little pointedly, which is how he says a lot of things, “I’m pletórico.” Plethoric, full of energy.At the press conference after Barcelona’s match with Sporting Gijón on Wednesday night, they had finished asking Luis Enrique questions when he announced that he was...
The 4-0 hammering by PSG has raised questions about a team that has been called a mess tactically and physically, with no youth system or leadership“We tried to score to get back into the tie but they got the third goal and then the fourth,” the Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique, said at the end of his darkest night. His words were telling but not even entirely true.It was not that Paris Saint-Germain had scored a goal; it was that they had scored a third and then a fourth, and anyway it was not as if the visitors had been caught chasing the game, a quick counter or some fluke goal cruelly ending it. When Ángel Di María curled in the...
Madrid have won La Liga only once in the past eight years but victory over Barcelona at the Camp Nou would put them nine points clear of their rivalsZidane scored for Real Madrid this week – Enzo Zidane, that is. Just when his dad thought things could not get any better, the 21-year-old got a goal on his debut – 17 minutes after he walked on to the Bernabéu pitch and a decade after his father last walked off it.It is 3,861 days since Zinedine was a Madrid player; 333 days since he became the Madrid manager and he is already a European Champion, a European Super Cup champion and a very proud parent. Win on Saturday afternoon and the...