Barca were focused on dogged Granada, insists Sergi Roberto

Sergi Roberto rejected suggestions Barcelona had one eye on Tuesday’s Champions League match against Manchester City after a laboured 1-0 win over Granada.

Rafinha’s fifth goal in six LaLiga appearances this season lifted the defending champions up to second in the table behind Real Madrid.

But Barca failed to hit the heights for long periods, as front three Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez drew a rare collective blank.

Neverthless, right-back Sergi Roberto was content with their control of the contest and felt the deep-lying defence fielded by Granada – still bottom of the league and without a win this season – presented its own problems.

“The team were very focused on this game,” he told television reporters.

“We knew that next week we have a very important game but we were focused on this one.

“Every game is a final for us, to get the three points is great.”

Granada have suffered 5-1 and 7-1 defeats against Las Palmas and Atletico Madrid respectively this term but proved more robust opponents at Camp Nou.

“We had a good game,” Sergi Roberto said. “We had them camped out in their own half and it was dificult to break them down.

“We had some great chances to score and they didn’t shoot on goal. We dominated, could have had lots of goals but did not do that.

“If we had scored in the first half very quickly I think that the game would have been very different, but Granada were packed together and difficult to break down.

“It is always difficult when a team is compact. I think the result was a good one.”