Gerardo Martino hails 'great' Barcelona after Levante rout
New coach pays credit to players, having had luxury of resting Lionel Messi after half-time
Manager Gerardo Martino has hailed Barcelona's "great performance" in demolishing Levante 7-0 and warned that it was just the start.
Barca's passing and intense pressing overwhelmed the visitors as they romped to a 6-0 first-half lead thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez, Lionel Messi (2), Dani Alves, Pedro and Xavi.
Martino, 50, then introduced Brazilian international Neymar for his debut after the break and could even afford the luxury of withdrawing Messi with 20 minutes remaining before Pedro rounded off the scoring for the evening with the seventh.
"The first-half performance was great," the Argentine manager said. "The concepts we wanted to improve we have improved, but it was nothing new. They were things from the past that we have returned to doing. We scored a goal from pressing high, played both through the middle and on the wings, but we have only just started."
Martino said he had agreed that it will be better for Messi to rest in the final stages of such one-sided games this season.
"He is very intelligent and we came to an agreement very quickly in this sense. I spoke to Leo a few weeks ago and we chatted about the importance of various matches and he understood that it was good to rest." Martino said.
