The poor quality of the pitch made Catalan giants, Barcelona struggle to beat Xerex admitted Yaya Toure.

The scrappy game was settled by two goals in the second half from Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The champions had a lackluster first half and struggled to get a firm hold of the game.

The midfield hardman readily acknowledged to AS that they were more than happy to come away with full points.

"That was a difficult game. We are not used to playing on a surface like that and it was not a good game but we are happy to come away with the three points.

"The boss told us to play one-twos but on that pitch it was not easy."

The victory widened the gap at the top of the table to five points away from the nearest competitors.

The table leaders are left with just two league games to play before the travel to Abu Dhabi for the FIFA Club World Cup in mid December.