Luis Enrique has claimed that Barcelona's 6-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday was partly to blame for their 2-1 defeat at Deportivo La Coruna.
The Blaugrana were brought back to earth on Sunday as they relinquished vital ground in the La Liga title race at the Riazor.
Succumbing to two goals from set plays, the visitors were unable to reclaim the fiery, clinical nature that helped them qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League in such style just a few days earlier.
Enrique told Marca: "Only those who has lived what we have experienced this week knows what it all means. But the professionals have to know how to deal with these situations, there will always be tough games.
"We thought that it would be difficult, a game is always affected by what has happened in the previous one. It is always better to go in euphoric than pessimistic.
"Watching us in the build up to the game, it was clear that [beating PSG] would cost us. We knew so beforehand. We didn't have the necessary fluency to overcome [Deportivo's] style but we were growing and ended up making mistakes.
"We lacked that lucidity and it was a shame because I think this match was very important to continue our form and for our rivals to see how good we are, but we were blunt."
A win for Real Madrid at home to Real Betis on Sunday night will see Zinedine Zidane's charges leapfrog Barca and return to the summit of La Liga with a game in hand.
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