Football
9y

'Wait and see' on Sergio Busquets injury, says Barcelona's Luis Enrique

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said he hoped Sergio Busquets would soon be back in action, after a potentially serious ankle injury for the midfielder marred the Catalan outfit's progress to the Copa del Rey final at Villarreal on Wednesday night.

Two goals from Neymar and one from Luis Suarez saw Barca win 3-1 on the night, and qualify 6-2 on aggregate for May 30's decider against Athletic Bilbao.

The low point of the night for the Blaugrana side was a serious-looking ankle ligament injury for Busquets, which puts in question his availability for the upcoming Champions League last 16 second leg at home to Manchester City on March 18, and La Liga Clasico at home to Real Madrid four days later.

An initial club statement said tests on Thursday will be required to judge the seriousness of the problem, and the Barcelona coach told his post-match news conference at El Madrigal that everyone would now be waiting to see what the diagnosis was.

"It was the night's bad moment," Luis Enrique said. "Without knowing anything, he will be out for some days, we will have to wait and see how many."

A fourth Copa decider for Barca in the past five seasons, and a first cup final of any type for Luis Enrique as a coach, was always on the cards once Lionel Messi's superb cross was finished by Neymar just three minutes in.

"It was not planned to score in our first attack," the Asturian coach said. "A better start you could not get. We had not wanted a game of attack and counter-attack, but one of control. They had two or three chances in the first half. In the second half we controlled things better. Our objective was to win the game, but with control, as we knew they were going to cause us problems."

Despite their difficult situation, Villarreal kept attacking making chances long after their chance of qualification seemed gone, and Luis Enrique praised the attitude and quality of Marcelino's side.

"Despite being 1-0 down they had chances to score," he said. "They had faith and made chances. But when we made it 2-1, it was all over.They are one of the best teams around, so it is always difficult to beat them."

The former Barca and Real Madrid midfielder refused to be drawn on what is likely to be another running of Spain's annual debate over where the Copa final should be played, batting back a leading question about whether he would like it to be at Madrid's Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

"I have no news about that," Luis Enrique said. "I do not care where we play, or who is the opponent. What matters is that we are going to play that game. At Barca we are here to win trophies."

^ Back to Top ^