Hansi Flick takes the floor. The Barcelona coach took stock of the situation after the draw against Celta Vigo (2-2) which reopened the fight for La Liga. The German coach spoke thus in the press conference in view of tomorrow’s match which will see the Blaugrana team face Brest in the Champions League:
The rival: “For us it will be very important to have control of the ball and finalize the attacks to get the three points.”
The team’s lapses in concentration: “We have a young team, the youngest in La Liga, and it’s not always a walk in the park, you have to be careful in certain situations during the 90 minutes. With the 0-2 in favor and the expulsion, yesterday we should have defended better than We always want to play and attack, but sometimes you just need to control the ball and defend well. In La Liga there are very difficult away games, I like the away fans because they create a very positive atmosphere.”
The missteps in La Liga: “I always think positively, that’s what I said, ours is a young team and during the season it’s normal to have situations like this. For me it’s important to learn from these experiences. The quality of the players is very high and we have to demonstrate it on the pitch , and we want to start doing it from tomorrow, but the process of this young team is part of football. We continue to lead La Liga, even if with less advantage, but any team would like to be on this path.”
Defensive pressure: “Of course when we win the ball back, sometimes it’s better to control it and other times we just want to score the next goal, but that’s not possible, especially away from home, and we have to learn that, pass the ball back and start again. That’s what we have to do.” .
The physical conditions: “We have the same physical level as in previous matches, like in Vigo or Monaco, it’s not a question of physique, it’s more of mistakes. There are many things we can do better with and without the ball, and we’re focusing on that” .
The latest negative results: “We follow our path, it is our path and we are all happy with this, the players know it, they know where we need to improve, we have talked about it and we have faith in the players. We are a young team that is doing very well, in the last few games less , but we can learn from this.”
High blood pressure: “You have to be well connected, the whole team, in defense and in attack. When we attack, everything starts from the defense and it is important to be connected. We need to put pressure on the construction of the opponent’s game and if we don’t do it, the rivals at this level know how to overcome us.”
What did he do to improve: “It’s important for us that the players know that they are good, that they have quality and that they have to trust us. We want to teach them that they have to play together, be well connected on the pitch. It’s incredible to see how they can play, but we have to transfer it to the match and we are focusing on this.”
Balde: “Of course, I changed it because of Gerard’s yellow card. Balde had muscular problems last week and before the match he was in the same situation, we thought he could play but it wasn’t possible, today he was better and could be an option for the next matches, but not for tomorrow.”
Brest: “Brest are doing very well in the previous matches, they have ten points and we have already seen what they did in Salzburg. They are a good team and we have to focus on this match, that’s what we will do, our goal is to win against them” .
The result: “The important thing is to win and we will focus on this in tomorrow’s match.”
Yamal foils: “Lamine has a quality that allows you to control the ball, but also makes the opponents give us more space. I think and hope that this is the last match he loses, because today he was very good, but we will have to wait. I hope that Saturday is an option, perhaps from the bench, but we’ll see.”