Roura hails Barcelona depth

Barcelona assistant coach Jordi Roura has praised the Catalan club’s fringe players after they inspired a 3-0 win over Real Zaragoza.

Thiago Alcantara slotted Barcelona’s opener before setting up Cristian Tello for two goals and Roura was thrilled to see them impress with the likes of Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and David Villa left out of the starting line-up.

Roura also paid tribute to Barcelona’s focus as they finished off a desperate Zaragoza side, who are fighting relegation from La Liga.

“Tello’s performance was great today, he gave us depth on that flank,” Roura said.

“He also scored two important goals but Alex Song was also superb, he helped us a lot in the middle.

“As for Thiago, (Marc) Bartra and (Martin) Montoya, they were also great as the score proves.

“Anyway, this was such a hard game for us because of Zaragoza’s situation, plus the heat, the dry pitch.

“We would not have had a good result here today if we had not been focused.”

Despite leaving Messi, Pique and Villa out of the starting line-up – seemingly to recover from Barcelona’s 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League last week – Roura argued they ‘did not save anybody’.

“La Liga is key for us, it is our main goal,” Roura said.

“We didn’t save anybody, we played with our best players.

“So we are happy and proud of this team. Once again they showed that we are a team.

“The ones who are not regulars showed they are always ready to help when needed.”

While Tello was thrilled to score his fourth and fifth goals of the La Liga season but does not believe it will force head coach Tito Vilanova to select him in Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final versus Bayern Munich.

“The Champions League is a spectacular competition but my role is very clear,” Tello said.