Ernesto Valverde was happy to see his side pass a tricky Eibar examination as Barcelona just about saw off their 10-man opponents ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League test with Chelsea.
The Catalans left the Estadio Ipurua with a first win in three league attempts on Saturday thanks to goals from Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba.
The win saw Barca equal a league record set when Pep Guardiola was manager in 2011, making it 31 La Liga games unbeaten.
Suarez opened the scoring against the run of play 16 minutes in, before Alba made certain of the points at the death after the in-form hosts had seen Fabian Orellana dismissed in the 66th minute for petulantly punching the ball away, earning himself a second yellow.
“We had to win,” said Valverde following the 2-0 victory. “Eibar pushed us very hard and were at a very high level, and I attribute our suffering to that. They were on an incredible streak of their own so the win has double merit.”
Victory stretched their lead at the top of La Liga to 10 points although second-placed Atletico Madrid can cut it back to seven with victory at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.
And even though Barca have their first-leg trip to Stamford Bridge in the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday, Valverde insists he cared only for three points domestically.
“This match was very important for us after two draws in the league,” he said. “I don’t care much about Chelsea, our objective was to win again. In Ipurua everybody suffers, nobody wins easy, but Tuesday is another story.”