Ronald Koeman believes Real Madrid are not better than Barcelona

Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has argued that Sunday's defeat to El Clasico does not mean that his side are inferior to Real Madrid.

The match was fairly even from a stats point of view, with Barcelona having a handful of chances to seal the win themselves, but they were already two goals down by the time Sergio Aguero netted deep into injury time.

Sloppiness in front of goal was a major problem for Barcelona, and after the game, Koeman insisted his side were better than the result suggested.

"It's true that we were good in the first half, we controlled the game well," he said (via Marca). "We had a great opportunity to get ahead on the scoreboard.

"But in the second half, they did their part and defended well, and we were not able to create danger. With their counter attack, you have to be vigilant. I'm disappointed by the result but not by what we have done as a team.

"Clasicos are even matches, where they play their game and we try to do outs. The details greatly influence the result. It's a shame, we had the opportunities and we deserved it.

"I understand the frustration of the fans, but today we showed that we are not inferior to Real Madrid. If we had scored the first goal and not gone behind, everything would have changed."

Koeman did, however, criticise the fans for their decision to whistle striker Luuk de Jong, who came off the bench late on as Barcelona pumped crosses in the box in search of an equaliser.

"[The number of crosses] shows that we had a lot of the ball, but we have to improve things in attack, such as the last pass, the right cross, the best positions in the penalty area," Koeman confessed.

"I put Luuk de Jong on. I don't like the crowd whistling at any player, you have to help and support every player on your team."