Champions League: “Baby Barça” overwhelms Young Boys Bern

Hansi Flick is certainly at peace with how the season has gone so far. His boys from FC Barcelona were able to win eight of the ten games in the Spanish league and the Champions League, the two defeats in Monaco at the start of the European premier class and the defeat last Sunday in Osasuna are painful slip-ups that do not detract from the positive overall dynamic. The former German national coach, who has been in office since this season, had two days off from training after the convincing 5-0 win against Young Boys Bern on Tuesday evening in the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium in front of 45,097 spectators. »It was important that we got three points and our first win. With the 5:0 it was well deserved. It was noticeable at the beginning that we didn’t play with as much confidence as we normally do. With the first goal it was all back again and then things were a little easier. We are satisfied, now we can move on,” was Flick’s objective conclusion at the press conference. It continues on Sunday in the Basque capital Vitoria at Deportivo Aláves.

In the Basque Country in Pamplona, ​​Flick had to put up with cautious criticism in the media for the first time after the 4-2 defeat last Sunday. Too much rotation and in the wrong game, an away game against Osasuna, who are strong at home, is much more difficult to win than a home game against the struggling Swiss series champions Bern, who are second to last in the league after a false start. Of course, Flick doesn’t dispute that, he points to a long season and a long list of injuries, which is why he put 17-year-old Lamine Yamal, the Brazilian Raphinha as well as central defender Iñigo Martínez and left-back Alejandro Balde on the reserve bench in Osasuna to rest them. Yamal and Raphinha only arrived after around an hour and were unable to avert the 2-4 defeat despite a dream goal from Yamal. Against Bern, Flick fielded his parade eleven, apart from the eight injured players, including seven national players such as German goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.

Barcelona’s shooting star Yamal was taken off the field with a quarter of an hour to go on Tuesday for load control reasons when the score was 4-0. He would have liked to have continued playing because he had not yet had a direct involvement in the goal, which he has managed to do in all but one game this season – now there are two. After all, he initiated the important 1-0 after nine minutes through Robert Lewandowski with a pass to Raphinha, whose ricochet the 36-year-old Polish center forward pushed into the empty goal. Flick played down Yamal’s frustration after his substitution in the press conference: “There are a lot of games and he has already played a lot of minutes. I did that with Robert (Lewandowski) too. I’m sure they both wanted to play more, but I can’t take that into account.”

Lewandowski in Ronaldo’s footsteps

Not only the 1-0, but also the 4-0 was won by Lewandowski, who is now the first player after Cristiano Ronaldo to score 50 goals in the Champions League at the age of 30 and has now reached 96 in this competition Hit comes. With a double strike after two corners in the 34th and 37th minute and goals from Raphinha and Iñigo Martínez, Barcelona made things clear in the first half and didn’t let anything go wrong after that.

The Bernese coach Patrick Frame recognized Barcelona’s victory without further ado. “They exerted enormous pressure, we defended in solidarity and didn’t allow many chances from the game.” It was annoying that three goals came from set pieces and an own goal to make it 5-0 while Bern scored with a shot against the crossbar and a narrow goal for offside a better result would be denied.

“Baby Barça” is bursting with joy

In addition to the standards and the joy of playing, Flick’s “Baby Barça” was particularly impressive thanks to its counter-pressing. After losing the ball, the opponent with the ball is chased by several players, which results in many ball wins and a high level of ball possession. This game requires a lot of willingness, says Flick, which he attests to his team’s willingness to learn. “Our goal is to improve, to recognize potential where we can improve and to get better from game to game.” Flick also expects more potential from the return of injured players. Frenkie de Jong made his comeback on Tuesday in the final quarter of an hour after 163 days, star purchaser Dani Olmo, like Fermín López, is expected back after the international break and from the end of October, the long-term injured Gavi should gradually return to his pre-season level after almost a year injury can be caused. The same applies to 21-year-old Ansu Fati, who continues to struggle for form after a serious knee injury in 2020 and was given his longest playing time to date against Bern with 30 minutes by Flick, who praised him in the press conference: “Ansu is very strong in training and is at a high level. He has great motivation to improve, is very professional and deserves that we have patience with him.”

If things continue after the international break in October, the home game against Sevilla will be followed immediately by the acid test on October 23rd against the German record champions Bayern Munich, against whom they have only suffered defeats in the Champions League since 2015 – including an embarrassing 2:8 in the Quarter-finals in Lisbon 2020. Bayern’s coach at the time was Hansi Flick. Two similar playing systems will then collide in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, ​​as Bayern coach Vincent Kompany is also an advocate of pressing, counter-pressing and high defending. If Flick’s youngsters survive against Bayern, they will also be prepared for the Clásico against arch-rivals Real Madrid on October 26th.