Lionel Messi admitted Barcelona are a “weak team” who have to be “self-critical” after they relinquished their La Liga title to Real Madrid on Thursday.
Real made sure of their 34th La Liga title with a game to spare after a 2-1 victory at Villarreal, with Barca making Real’s task all the more comfortable as they slipped to a surprise 2-1 home defeat to Osasuna.
Messi had equalised for Barca in the second half, but even after Enric Gallego was sent off for the visitors, a stoppage-time winner from Roberto Torres ended Barca’s 30-game unbeaten home league run, completing a miserable evening.
“We are a weak team who can be beaten with enough intensity and enthusiasm,” Messi told Spanish TV.
READ ALSO
“We need to be self-critical, starting with the players, but also across the entire club. We are Barcelona, and we are obliged to win every game.”
Coach Quique Setien insisted he does not know if he will still be coaching Barcelona when they resume their Champions League campaign in August as he acknowledged his job could be at risk, while also siding with Messi and his views.
“I hope to be the Barcelona coach in the Champions League but I don’t know,” he said. “I agree with Messi on some things. We have to do self-criticism and if we don’t do it, it will cost us anything we want to do.
“We have tried to improve during these months that we have been here, there are things that have cost us and [overshadowed the] many times that we have done well. It all comes down to success, today the opponent shot three times and scored two goals, we had fifteen [shots] and we were not right.”