Iniesta admits to relief after nine-goal Barça victory

Published on 22/10/2012 00:00

BARCELONA midfielder Andres Iniesta admitted he was relieved his side were able to claim all three points in their nine-goal thriller with Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday night.

Lionel Messi once again grabbed the headlines with a hat-trick but that only told half the story on a night of sensational drama at Riazor.

It seemed the Catalan club were on their way to a thundering win after Jordi Alba, Cristian Tello and Messi all struck within 18 minutes but Depor replied with a Luis Pizzi penalty and an Alex Bergantinos strike. Messi struck his second and third in between Pizzi’s second of the match and the dismissal of Javier Mascherano, while an own goal from Alba left the visitors clinging on for dear life.

That they managed to hold on to claim a 5-4 success was of great satisfaction to Iniesta, who is aware they need to improve. “We could have killed the game off in the first half, but Depor are dangerous and they caused us a lot of problems in defence,” he said. “We’re leaving with the sensation that we won a very difficult match. We have to learn a lot of things from this match.”

Alba agreed with his team-mate’s assertions and hailed Depor for their resolve. “It was a very hard-fought victory, but it was very important,” said the former Valencia left-back. “The important thing is that we won the game and that we’re returning with the three points. At 2-3, the game was fairly even and it ended up being a crazy game.”

Messi continues to light up the Primera Division and his treble took his tally for 2012 to 59, beating his previous record from two years ago.

“Statistics are only numbers. I’m only concerned with winning the three points whenever possible,” said the Argentine.