Ernesto Valverde: 'Barcelona were put in difficult position'

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has admitted that his side's behind-closed-doors meeting with Las Palmas was a unique situation and one that he did not have much say in.

The La Liga leaders played Sunday's fixture at an empty Camp Nou after being threatened with a six-point penalty if they pushed ahead with plans to postpone it.

Violence across the Catalonia region had threatened to see the game called off, with tensions rising amid a controversial referendum for independence, but Valverde believes that the decision to play was a good way for Barca to show their own unified support.

"It's been a different situation from other situations, at least in my career," he told reporters. "The club has tried to postpone the game, it has not been possible, and the club has decided to make an exceptional gesture to a situation that was being generated throughout Catalonia.

"It is a decision that has put the club in a difficult situation. Until shortly before playing we did not know if we would play. The president went down to the locker room, we spoke about it and in the end it is a consensual decision with the club."

Barcelona went on to win the match 3-0 thanks to second-half goals from Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi, the latter scoring a brace to help extend his side's lead at the La Liga summit.