Football
Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent 7y

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique: Aleix Vidal has proved me wrong

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said Aleix Vidal had proved him wrong after the right-back impressed against Las Palmas and scored in his first La Liga outing in four months.

Vidal was among those to shoulder the blame for September's shock defeat to Alaves and he did not feature for Barca again until the Copa del Rey game against Hercules in November.

There had been speculation that he could leave in January, but his performance in Saturday's 5-0 win may serve to extend his stay at the Camp Nou until the summer.

"Based on the way he's trained for the last few months, Aleix is ready to play," Luis Enrique said in his postmatch news conference.

"He's proved his manager wrong and he's ready to compete. He was excellent today.

"With the exception of Jordi Masip, he's the player who's had the least minutes this season. Physically he's in great shape and that allows him to come in and play at such a high level."

Vidal scored the fifth goal in the rout of the Canary Islanders after two Luis Suarez efforts had sandwiched a Lionel Messi tap-in and Arda Turan's 12th goal of the campaign.

Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Neymar were all rested.

Luis Enrique added: "What I'm happiest about is how we played without the ball.

"If you don't press Las Palmas well, they create problems. But getting the ball back from them quickly we were able to generate chances.

"The team's work defensively was great -- it was one of the best performances since I've been here."

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