“Dreaming is allowed,” Hansi Flick said after their 1-0 victory [5-4 on aggregate] against Atlético Madrid in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final. “But we will have to work hard. At the club, they have a lot of space for more titles.”
And on Wednesday night against Atlético Madrid, Barça managed to suppress any kind of rebellion brewing in the home corner of the Metropolitano. After an open and wild first leg at Montjuïc, which saw both teams score four goals each, a much tighter contest ensued in Madrid—tight enough to prevent Atléti from registering a single shot on target. FerranTorres scored the lone goal, after an angled through ball from Lamine Yamal split open the defence. Barça controlled the game, both with and without the ball.
“You also have to defend, and we did it great,” Flick said. “Not only with the ball but also against the ball – and this is teamwork.”
Flick has already achieved the treble with Bayern Munich, back in the 2019/20 season—his first year coaching the Bavarians. In Spain, however, his journey is much more arduous, as the most storied football club on the planet will be battling with his side on three fronts.
Let’s first shift our focus to La Liga—a topsy-turvy season that has seen both Barça and Madrid take the lead and fumble it. At this moment, Barcelona lead Real Madrid by three points, while Atléti trail by nine, with less than two months and nine games of the season left to play.
Tactically and statistically, Barça are bossing the league, while defending champions Madrid remain second—except in penalties awarded. In fact, Barcelona are the top-scoring team across Europe’s big five domestic leagues, with 78 goals combined from the boots of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Yamal. And it’s not just the starting XI contributing—Barça are second only to Atléti in terms of goals scored from the bench, with 17.
The reason for this dominance stems from Flick’s management of both the players and their environment. According to The Athletic, Flick has ensured that the team operates in an exclusive setting, limiting access for the media and even the club’s own content team in the dressing room.
“The dressing room is unbelievable; everyone takes care of each other,” he said at a recent press conference. “I love to see that. I think we have created a very solid bond—not just between the players but also between them and all the backroom staff. Everyone feels that they are important in this project.”
His ruthlessness when it comes to punctuality was evident in the goalkeeper conundrum at the Supercopa de España. Before the semi-final clash against Athletic Bilbao, Iñaki Peña, who had been designated first-choice keeper ahead of 34-year-old Wojciech Szczęsny, was expected to retain his place after a string of good performances. However, Peñaarriving late to a pre-game team meeting saw him dropped altogether. With Szczęsny delivering solid performances as the new No. 1, Peña has since been consigned to the bench.
Now, however, Flick believes that Marc-André terStegen is a better fit for the team than Peña.
Looking ahead to the UEFA Champions League, Barça will face Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals, and unless there’s another twist in the tale, they have a significantly easier path to the final in Munich.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, appear shakier and a bit more inconsistent compared to a Barça side that seems to have rediscovered their mojo. But for Barça to win a treble in Flick’s first season, they will have to beat Madrid at least twice along the way. That Barcelona have won both encounters this season – 4-0 and 5-2 – will count for little at the business end of the campaign.
There is much football to be played, and history has shown that counting Real out before big matches even begin rarely ends well for their opponents.
For the Latest Sports News: Follow RevSportz