Hansi Flick and Barcelona are through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after defeating Newcastle United.
For those who didn’t watch the game(s), the scoreline doesn’t tell anything like the whole story
It ended 8-3 on aggregate, 7-2 on the night, but Hansi Flick admitting after the match in Barcelona: “The first half was very tough, we knew Newcastle would press, but they were very good man to man. After we scored the first goal, everything then went up and down. I was very happy when we scored the third goal.”
The same as at St James’ Park, the penalty at the very end of the half was a killer.
The fact that Aaron Ramsdale got his fingertips to the well struck Yamal penalty, made it even more frustrating.
Hansi Flick going on to say: “The solution was always to play progressively, but we lost the ball many times [in the first half] and because Newcastle are very fast, it wasn’t easy to defend. I asked the players at half-time to have more precision, to push Newcastle deep and it worked well.”
Newcastle going in at the break behind, when they should have been ahead, was tough to take watching it, so the players must have felt even worse.
United had started really well and across the first half were the better team, causing the home side problems, only to be undone by individual mistakes (and slips) when defending.
As the Barcelona boss says, Newcastle were very good in attack throughout the first half and Hansi Flick saying he will be working on how his players defend better as a team: “We will analyse the defending, we want to improve and we will, but the last line of our defence is doing a really great job. The pressing on the ball today was very good and we didn’t make it easy for Newcastle to play out.”
A tale of what have been for Newcastle United, who could and should have been ahead after the match at St James’ Park and then the same after this first half in Barcelona.
Hansi Flick giving his thoughts: “This is the Champions League and there are no easy games. The first half was really tough and the third for us helped us a lot. At half time we said that the solution was to play on the front foot and play our game. We did that in the second half and I am very happy. As a coach it’s always good when the players listen and then produce. I saw new, improved confidence in that second-half performance. Mine is a very young team but they always try to be better and they keep improving.”
The Barcelona boss giving special mention to Robert Lewandowski who scored twice: “It was important today that he told me he had the power to carry on, to stay in the match. This is a good day, a good Champions League moment for him, to start scoring goals again.”
Barcelona now face Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals and Hansi Flick expecting another tough challenge: “The next round also looks like it will be very difficult, we have to go step by step, match by match. That is what we did last season [when getting to the Champions League semi-finals] and will do so again.”