Lamine Yamal enfadado tras ser sustituido

FLICK SPOKE AT A PRESS CONFERENCE

Hansi Flick breaks the silence on his tense moment with Lamine Yamal

Published:30/01/2025 - 03:30h

Updated:30/01/2025 - 18:39h

Hansi Flick appeared before the press after the Barça-Atalanta match. The German downplayed his 'clash' with Lamine Yamal and assessed his team's league phase performance

Calendar of FC Barcelona

The FC Barcelona could not get past a draw against an Atalanta that managed to stand up to the blaugranas in Montjuïc (2-2). At the end of the match, Hansi Flick spoke to the media regarding the clash against 'La Dea' and analyzed the performance of his team in the Champions League 2024/25 group stage.

"I am happy with the second position after this group stage. I think it is a great success for the team. It has been a difficult match. I think we could have done a little better, but overall we are satisfied with the result and qualifying as second", the German began saying to the microphones of 'Movistar+'.

"It has undoubtedly been a great football match because Atalanta defends well one-on-one and we have learned a lot from this match looking ahead", continued the coach, who was self-critical when referring to the defensive problems of the Barça, which conceded two goals that night.

"That is what needs to improve, yes, the defensive work. We are happy to finish in this position, but we have to work on many things. We have the potential to do something more and now we will have a few weeks to do more training", stated Flick, who commented on the 'clash' he had with Lamine Yamal after he was substituted.

"I was a bit disappointed, but he is young. It was at the end of the match when Pau Víctor came on. I wanted to change something and thought we could still win, but I am happy", the German simply said.

Hansi Flick, cautious about Barça's candidacy in the Champions

Later, in the press conference, Flick shared his opinion on the new format of the Champions League.  "The most important thing about this new format is that you never know what will happen. I am very happy because we have qualified and we have 15 more days to recover.  I like this format, it is interesting", he stated.

The German, on the other hand, deflected questions when asked if he sees Barça as a candidate to lift the title.  "Winning the Champions is one of the most complicated things, there are very good teams. It is not easy to win.  Liverpool is an incredible team, but I can say that we will give it our all and fight until the end of the season", he commented.

Similarly, the coach was questioned about the absence of Pau Cubarsí in the starting eleven, but took the opportunity to praise Eric García and Ronald Araujo.  "Eric and Ronald have done very well. We are confident, in one-on-one actions very well. In the second half, we improved, I am happy, but as a team, we can defend better", Flick insisted.

Finally, regarding the missed goal opportunities by his team, Flick stated that  "we could have scored the second goal more quickly in the second half, we wasted the first chance we had. We would have had more space, but in any case, we have scored many goals this season. We have 103 goals in 33 matches and I think that is good".