Hansi Flick insisted that there was still a long road ahead for his Barcelona team despite retaking top spot in LaLiga with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Levante on Sunday.
Flick watched on as Marc Bernal and Frenkie de Jong's first-half strikes were followed up by Fermin Lopez's 81st-minute finish at Camp Nou to move a point clear of Real Madrid.
Barcelona took advantage of their Clasico rivals' shock defeat to Osasuna a day earlier, maintaining their perfect record against Levante in the league on home soil.
With 13 games of their season remaining, the Opta supercomputer has assigned Barcelona a 58.2% chance of retaining the title, compared to Madrid's 41.7% win probability.
Flick, however, was keen to keep his feet on the ground, pointing to Madrid's latest defeat as a reason to stay on their toes for the rest of the campaign.
"We've taken the opportunity to return to the top spot. It's a very long road. Not everything has been good; we’ve needed some minutes to get into the match," Flick told reporters.
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The Barcelona boss did, however, highlight the performance of Joao Cancleo and Bernal, with the pair impressing after notching a goal and an assist, respectively.
Indeed, timed at three minutes and 55 seconds, Bernal scored the fastest goal for Barcelona in more than a year in any competition, while Cancelo's three chances created were a total only bettered by De Jong (four).
"[Cancelo] was good today, his potential, his positive qualities. We'll see if he ends up starting. I also want to see a good attitude in training, and he can help us a lot."
"Bernal's a player for the future of this club. That's what I wish for him. That he stays healthy. He gives us structure, he's been good with the ball, he controls the tempo."
Flick was also on hand to jump to the defence of Lamine Yamal, who, after setting up Fermin for Barcelona's third goal, was replaced by Roony Bardghji in the 88th minute.
Yamal had a relatively quiet game but still managed to complete a game-high total number of dribbles (four), and looked visibly upset when he saw his number shown.
"What was his reaction? Was he angry? It's normal. For me, the most important thing is that we won, and we also have players who deserve to play, like Bardghji," Flick said.
"I liked seeing his attitude when he came on. And that's it. You guys make a big deal out of everything Lamine does. If he's upset because he was substituted, that's human."