Barcelona boss Xavi has lavished praise on Ousmane Dembele for his performance in Sunday's 4-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou.

The France international put in a man-of-the-match display against Ernesto Valverde's side at the weekend, making the breakthrough in the 12th minute of the contest before setting up Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres for their goals against the Basque outfit.

Dembele has now contributed four goals and seven assists in 15 appearances for the Catalan side this season, including three goals and five assists in La Liga.

Xavi said that the 25-year-old "had a great match" on Sunday, and the club's head coach has now called on the attacker to put in those type of performances on a consistent basis.

"Dembele had a great match. For wingers, they can have good or bad plays. With Dembele, we want him to keep the good things. If you're not playing well, sometimes you have to limit yourself and play more simply. He has to understand that," Xavi told reporters.

"We want Dembele to always play at this level. That's why I wanted him to stay and why I gave him so much confidence."

Xavi also praised Alejandro Balde for his performance against Athletic, with the teenager playing the full 90 minutes of the contest at Camp Nou.

The left-back has already made 11 appearances in all competitions this season, providing three assists, and the Barcelona head coach has said that the 19-year-old has "enormous potential".

"Balde plays with a lot of confidence. He has competition in his position, but that is a good thing," he said. "Balde was playing at a spectacular level. He has enormous potential, technically and physically."

Barcelona have now picked up 28 points from their 11 league matches this season to sit second in the table, three points behind leaders Real Madrid.

The top two have already posted 19 victories between them in Spain's top flight this term, but Xavi has denied claims that the overall level of the league has become weaker.

"No, no. The opposite. Competitiveness has gone up a lot. Many La Liga teams have raised their level: Real Sociedad, Athletic, Villarreal, Sevilla, Atletico [Madrid]," he added.

Barcelona are currently preparing for Wednesday's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, while they will also take on Valenca, Viktoria Plzen, Almeria and Osasuna before the campaign breaks for the World Cup. body check tags ::