Gerard Pique promises Barcelona baby boom

Posted Friday, March 10, 2017 by irishexaminer.com

Gerard Pique joked there may be a baby boom among Barcelona supporters in nine months' time following Wednesday's record-breaking Champions League victory over Paris St Germain.

Barca scored three times after the 88th minute to stun PSG 6-1 at the Nou Camp and win their Champions League last-16 tie 6-5 on aggregate.

No team in UEFA club history had ever successfully overcome a 4-0 first-leg deficit but Barca wrote themselves into the record books thanks to goals from Neymar (two), Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, a Layvin Kurzawa og and Sergi Roberto. The historic triumph was sure to have been celebrated well into the night by followers of the Catalan giants, and Pique quipped that there might be some longer-term implications as well.

"Hospitals should hire nurses in nine months' time because there will be a lot of love," he said, in a quote reported by Barcelona's official Twitter account.
Barca capped a remarkable comeback against shell-shocked PSG when sub Sergi Roberto stabbed home the winner five minutes into stoppage time, sending the Nou Camp wild and keeping the club on course for a trophy treble in what will be Luis Enrique's last season. Barca are also top of LaLiga and play Alaves in the Copa del Rey final, but despite that success and their progress in Champions League, the team and Enrique have come under fire for some of their performances this season.

Pique was quick to round on his club's critics after Wednesday's win, though. He said: "I understand there are many people who want to bury us, coaches like (Arrigo) Sacchi, (Raymond) Domenech and I can give a list of many more coaches...but we've shown we're still here, we want to win. There will be a day when we fall down, but we're still alive." He added: "You can talk about a miracle, an historic party. Today I'm going to party even though I have training tomorrow. After tomorrow we will look to the league game."

Pique said outgoing boss Enrique deserves the plaudits. Enrique announced last week he will be leaving Barca, having already won eight out of a possible 10 trophies since replacing Gerardo Martino as boss in 2014.

Pique said: "He's not had the best of treatment and I think his role has been key. I would like him to dominate the front pages because his planning and the way he approached the game has led to our qualification. He deserves all the praise."

As Barca celebrate an unprecedented result, PSG were left to wonder what went wrong. The French champions had seemingly ended the home side's hopes when Edinson Cavani netted an away goal in the 62nd minute, only to be swept away by a late Barca onslaught.

Defender Thiago Silva felt there were refereeing decisions that went against his side - highlighting the stoppage-time penalty given for a supposed foul on Suarez that Neymar ended up scoring from - but conceded they did not deserve to go through.

The Brazil international said on his club's website: "It's inexplicable, we didn't play. It's difficult, because we didn't manage to put our game in place and qualification got away from us. We got a very good result in the first leg, but this evening, we didn't deserve to go through to the quarter-finals. It's not an excuse, but there was no foul on Suarez, and we could have had one of our own. Having said that, we mustn't blame the referee."