Barcelona vs Las Palmas - Luis Enrique hails 'crazy' scoring record of Luis Suarez

Posted Saturday, January 14, 2017 by PA

Luis Suarez's goalscoring record at Barcelona has been described as "crazy" by his manager Luis Enrique.

Suarez scored his 100th goal for the club in the Copa del Rey victory over Athletic Bilbao in midweek, the Uruguay striker's landmark arriving in only 120 games and 68 fewer than Lionel Messi's Barcelona century.

"It's crazy," Barcelona boss Enrique said at his pre-match conference ahead of the LaLiga home game with Las Palmas on Saturday.

"There are very few players in the world who can put up those kind of numbers.

"Those of us who believed in him were not mistaken, with regard to both his play and the way he is as a person."

Messi and Neymar were also on target in the 3-1 victory over Bilbao, and the 'MSN' strikeforce have now scored a staggering 302 goals between them since joining forces in the summer of 2014.

Messi produced another stunning trademark free-kick - his third in as many games since the winter break.

"Leo almost doesn't even need to practice free-kicks," Enrique said.

"He can do it from any angle, at any height, and from either side.

"It's just one more part of his repertoire."

Although safely through to the last eight of the Copa del Rey, Barcelona stand five points adrift of LaLiga leaders Real Madrid having played a game more.

And Enrique's side meet confident Las Palmas, who won 3-2 in the cup at Atletico Madrid in midweek, although it was not enough for them to progress to the quarter-finals.

"We are up against a side that has a similar philosophy to ours," Enrique said.

"They battle for the ball, and they try to use it to open up spaces and create chances.

"As a fan, they're one of the most entertaining teams to watch."

Las Palmas moved up to eighth spot after beating Sporting Gijon last weekend and have ambitions of playing European football next season.

And head coach Quique Setien feels Tuesday's win at Atletico shows his players can rise to the big occasion.

"We are always optimistic in these types of games, and to win in the Camp Nou we need to play a spectacular match in every sense," Setien was quoted as saying on the official club website.

"It is hard to get the ball off Barcelona, but we will try to get our fair share of possession.

"We can also do damage to Barcelona like we did in the (Vicente) Calderon.

"I don't know whether they are worried about their position in the league table, but Barcelona always go out there with a winning mentality."

Barcelona are at full-strength with defender Jeremy Mathieu and goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen fully recovered from recent knocks, with the latter having played against Bilbao.

Las Palmas pair Pedro Bigas and Dani Castellano have both picked up injuries and look set to miss out.