Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard refused to get carried away by his team’s 3-0 win over arch-rivals Real Madrid at the Nou Camp on Saturday.
“We’ve got to keep working hard and not get carried away just because we’ve won this match,” the Dutchman said afterwards.
“The result shows us the way forward but we mustn’t start thinking we are unbeatable.”
Barca’s victory put them seven points ahead of Real at the top of the Primera Liga with 12 games played.
“I was very happy with our performance because of the fact we scored three goals against a quality team, and I was delighted with the effort of all our players,” said Rijkaard.
“We put Real under pressure throughout the game and our defence gave them no room to attack us.”
Real Madrid coach Mariano Garcia Remon admitted he faced a huge task lifting the spirits of his team ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen.
“I’m worried about how this defeat could affect us because we’ve got a game on Tuesday that is a vital one for us,” said the Real coach.
“We lost because Barca were the better side but the main problem was that we didn’t know how to react after they took the lead.”
Barca went in front on 28 minutes when former Real player Samuel Eto’o took advantage of a defensive mix-up between Roberto Carlos and goalkeeper Iker Casillas to run the ball into an empty net.
“It was an infantile error that led to their first goal and it came at the worst time for us,” said Garcia Remon.
“After that we just couldn’t cope with the pressure.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst increased the lead before the break. Ronaldinho, who was outstanding on the night, added the third goal from the penalty spot with 15 minutes remaining.
“But we’ll keep fighting for the title and postpone our contest against them until we meet at the Bernabeu later in the season,” added a disconsolate Remon.
