Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has hailed his team's "character" following Saturday's 3-2 win over Valencia at the Mestalla.

Despite taking the lead in the first half of the La Liga contest through Lionel Messi, Barcelona trailed early in the second period after Munir El Haddadi and Rodrigo both netted for the hosts.

Luis Suarez equalised just past the hour, however, before Messi netted a 94th-minute penalty to secure all the points for the champions in spectacular fashion.

Enrique has claimed that the victory, which came at a cost due to an injury to Andres Iniesta, 'spoke volumes' about his team's "character".

"The way we won speaks volumes about the character of this team, despite the adversities of this game, like the injury to Iniesta, which is sad news," Enrique told reporters.

"But the character was there, the team have belief, desire to win and our objective isn't to suffer so much. It was a typical Valencia-Barcelona game, with verve and chances for both teams to get the win until the final whistle. We're happy, we did very well in parts of the game. We started very well with a great goal, which gave us control, and had chances to secure the result."

Barcelona have risen to the top of La Liga on 19 points, one point ahead of both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.