Ernesto Valverde Heaps Praise on His Barcelona Side After Comeback Win Over Rayo Vallecano

Ernesto Valverde has praised his side's ability to fight through tough games as they came back from a goal down to beat Rayo Vallecano 3-1 at the Nou Camp.

The visitors took a shock lead thanks to a brilliant solo effort from Raul De Tomas, who drove at the Barcelona defence before curling his effort into the bottom corner to open the scoring - Vallecano's first shot on target in the game.

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Unfortunately for Rayo they couldn't hold on until half time with Gerard Pique getting his head on the end of a Lionel Messi free kick, heading the ball home to get Barca back on level terms. Second half goals from Messi and Luis Suarez completed the comeback as Barcelona restored their seven point lead at the top of La Liga with a comfortable 3-1 win.

Speaking to Marca after the game, Valverde praised his side's ability to work through tough games and get results.

He said: "We didn't have the first goal go in our favour. The positive way to see it is that when we fit together, the team does very well. We have come through very complicated games."

Whilst the Catalans were able to pull out the win, Philippe Coutinho received a lot of criticism from fans after another underwhelming performance, but Valverde leapt to the defence of the Brazilian and claimed that he continues to work hard.

He added: "We are a club. There is a huge demand to win. We have to fight to be able to score. We always want him to pull a rabbit out of the hat, but his work is there. He's persevering."

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With their lead at the top of La Liga restored, Barcelona will now turn their attentions to the Champions League where they'll host Lyon in their Round of 16 clash on Wednesday night - with the aggregate score still level at 0-0.