Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard accepted they were beaten by a hungrier Villarreal last night.

The Yellow Submarines thumped Barca 3-1 and Rijkaard said: "Basically, Villarreal played very well. You cannot afford to give chances to teams like Villarreal and that's what we did.

"We lacked freshness, Villarreal were always hungrier for the ball. The international calendar is what it is and there's no point complaining about it.

"They beat us easily and were very aggressive. As I said, they won more tackles than us and that was the key."