Luis Enrique confident with ´made-to-measure´ Barcelona

Luis Enrique believes his Barcelona players will thrive under the pressure of a final-day shootout for La Liga.

Barca head into Saturday’s match at Granada a point ahead of Real Madrid at the summit, with their great rivals travelling to Deportivo La Coruna.

The defending champions have won their past four matches, finding the net 21 times without conceding, after a run of four matches without a victory flung the title race wide open.

“It’s an important game, without any doubt any game in which you are playing for the title is,” Luis Enrique told a pre-match news conference.

“It is going to be a difficult game because of the tension of it being the last day and us still being in contention for the title. But otherwise, it’s going to be the same as any other game.

“We are different to other teams. These players have won so many things and are used to all kinds of situations. We lap up this kind of pressure. These games are made-to-measure for Barca players.

“I look at how well we’ve played all season long and, knowing that this league is probably the most difficult in Europe, we demand a lot of ourselves.

“We’ve been talking to players all week long about what might happen this Saturday and we’ve been talking about the things that we need to do on the field to bring the title as close as possible.

“I think the players are sufficiently motivated and we just have to keep our eye on it to make sure they don’t get over excited.”

Luis Enrique refused to view a Barcelona victory this weekend as a formality, citing Atletico Madrid’s loss to lowly Levante last time out – a defeat that ended title aspirations for Diego Simeone’s Champions League finalists – as a cautionary tale.

“There are two theories and they’re both valid,” he said, on whether the match could be straightforward or difficult.

“Everyone was sure Atletico Madrid were going to beat Levante but look what happened. The same might happen with Granada. They might be stronger with the pressure off or they might relax.

“When the ball starts rolling at the Nuevo Los Carmenes, we will only have one target – victory. There are a number of factors involved. It would be nice if we could score first, but even that is no guarantee.”