Barcelona captain Leo Messi says they must up their performance after drawing 1-1 with Athletic Bilbao.

A draw against Girona was followed up by a midweek defeat to Leganes before Munir had to strike late to rescue the Blaugrana on Saturday afternoon.

It is unusual for Messi to answer questions following a game but as the side's captain, he felt obliged to front up for BeIN's cameras.

"There isn't any anxiety because the season has just started and it is a long year ahead," he said.

"We didn't expect the recent results but in this game, we created situations to win and we couldn't manage to do it.

"We must be stronger defensively, we have come from a year that it was tough [to score against us] and now it is taking the minimum to do it.

"It can't happen that we concede goals in every game, we must improve and become strong in the defensive area because that is the most important thing."

Messi believes that his side did do enough to win against the Bilbao outfit but is already looking to put it behind them in the Champions League in midweek.

"I think that we put in a performance that could have won us the game, and in the first half, had many clear chances to go ahead," he explained.

"But then we went 1-0 down and things got very complicated which is a shame.

"Now, we must carry on and look forward because we have a tough game coming up on Wednesday.

"It is a very difficult group so we know we have to be at our best and move forward with calmness."