Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde shrugged off his sideâs continuing struggles in front of goal after they were held to a 0-0 draw at Lyon in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.
The usually free-scoring Catalan giants drew three games in a row before battling to a 1-0 win over Real Valladolid on Saturday, scoring only four goals across the four games.
Three of those came from Lionel Messi, including two penalties, but the Argentina star was unable to add to his tally against a stubborn Lyon side who were without their suspended captain and top scorer Nabil Fekir.
âIt was a game that we knew was going to be tough,â Valverde said in an interview broadcast on Barcelonaâs website. âTheyâve got some great players, especially on the counter-attack they can hurt you a lot and what we wanted to do was dominate the game.
âWe didnât really want to give them too many chances and I think we did that well. At the start of the game they had a couple of dangerous opportunities but I think we controlled the situation well after that and thatâs football.
âYou have 25 shots and there are times when you score five and there are other days when you donât score at all.â
Barca defender Gerard Pique refused to criticise his goal-shy team-mates, adding: âWeâve got great strikers who have shown that throughout their careers. I think itâs a question of creating chances and having possession and I think today we have to be happy.â
Lyon defender Jason Denayer was delighted to keep a clean sheet and believes his side can pull off a shock result in the second leg at the Nou Camp.
âIt felt good for us to keep the clean sheet because itâs very important against a team like this so I think that is a positive point from this game,â Denayer said.
âI think we did well in defence and had a few chances to score. We didnât take them but itâs positive to know we can create them. Today we can see we have a chance and with Nabil I think it will be a little bit better so we still have hope of winning there.â