Ronald Koeman Admits Barcelona Were 'Lucky' to Beat Dynamo Kyiv
By Tom Gott
Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has warned his side that they must improve, despite picking up a 2-1 win over Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday.
A Lionel Messi penalty put Barcelona ahead early on and Gerard Piqué added a second after the break, but Dynamo could have easily had more than just Victor Tsygankov's late strike to show for their efforts.
Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was in inspired form on his long-awaited return from a knee injury, and Koeman confessed that his side would likely have been on the losing end had it not been for the German's heroics.
"I am happy with the result, but I am not satisfied with some phases, we were lucky to have Ter Stegen," he confessed (via Marca). "I think we started the match well, quickly going 1-0 up, and then we had the second clear chance. From there, we lost control and they had a lot of good chances.
"Thanks to Marc, who has been phenomenal, we have held on. Our performance without the ball was not very good.
"The problem exists, sometimes you cannot press. And if you do, you leave spaces. They have played well and caused us real problems. In general, defensively, we have been good [before this game]. In no game before has an opponent caused us as many problems as this one. We must improve the game without the ball."
Ter Stegen went on to deflect the praise and insist that winning is all that matters for Barcelona, although he warned his team-mates that they cannot continue to defend like they did against Dynamo.
"For me it was very important to win this game," he added. "I really wanted to be on the field again and do what I like the most.
In #BarçaDynamo, Leo #Messi scored his fastest career penalty kick goal in all competitions and the fastest penalty kick goal by a Barça player in @ChampionsLeague history (4m 53s). pic.twitter.com/iHCkmXZuIR
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 4, 2020
"The saves are not important, the key is that we won the game. I am very happy for the team, since we are at the top of the group. But our opponents had plenty of chances to score and we must discuss this. We have to improve.
"We started the game well, making good opportunities to score. Anyway, then we suffered a lot. The game got a bit more nervous then. In the first half we played well, but in the second it was stretched. We suffered."