The FC Barcelona coach, Hansi Flick, believes that this Saturday’s Clásico at the Santiago Bernabéu will be a “great game” to which his players arrive well prepared, and he has “full confidence” in his team and even more so after working and polishing details with the 4-1 victory against Bayern Munich still fresh in everyone’s memory.
“To be honest, I don’t think too much now about what a Clásico entails, I think about the team, all the players really want to play this game tomorrow, I’m also looking forward to it and it will be a very good game, a great game,” said the ‘culer’ coach at a press conference.
An appointment that he faces with “full confidence” in his players. “We have our game system, against Bayern I already said that we had to improve some things and it’s about this, adapting to the next game. We play against a team that also has very fast players but I have full confidence in my team,” he added.
Flick wants to see his team progress, whether after defeat or victory, as happened against Bayern on Wednesday. “We did very well against Bayern, who matched us 1:1 in pressure but we knew how to return to our intensity. It is a symbol of youth and courage of the team, we must have more possession and combine well, do well with and without the ball and It’s what we have trained,” he acknowledged.
He will go out to the Bernabéu to apply high pressure and with advanced lines. “There are many coaches who study this when we apply it, but it is our philosophy; to press high and go for the ball and for the ball carrier. We have to be very close, play compactly because when there is a lot of space between the lines it doesn’t work for us. good,” he acknowledged.
“We did very well against Bayern, especially after the 1-1 draw and in the second half. It’s not easy to coach them but we do it. We have a lot of quality with and without the ball and that’s what we want to continue seeing. We know perfectly well what to do and When we play together it is our greatest strength,” he reiterated.
The coach did not want to reveal his eleven, not even if he will repeat his commitment to Fermín López, who is key against Bayern. “I have not decided who plays or if he will start or not. Fermín was involved in three goals and in the last goal he recovered the ball with great pressure, he also participated in the first goal and was very quick in the pass to Raphinha. We are very happy to be back after the injury and at Bayern he showed a great performance, very good,” he accepted.
“We have a very good team, with great players. Lamine is doing very well, also Pau Cubarsí, if you see how he plays as a center back at 17 years old… We need all the players in optimal performance for tomorrow, it is very important,” he commented in this sense about the good form of several of its youngest players.
As for praise, he appreciates it but it doesn’t affect him. “When you win, everything is good and when you lose, it is not so good. We have to concentrate on our performance, on our idea of the game and passion in the game. It is a great change, I love the connection between players and fans in Montjuïc It is something fantastic and it is why we play and we give everything to win, also the Clásico. If you play football, you want to play a Clásico. In Germany there are other classics but the real Clásico is a Madrid-Barça. work hard,” he said.
RULE OUT MAKING REFEREE VIDEOS
When told that Real Madrid has once again made, on its Real Madrid TV channel, a video to show the errors of the Clásico referee (Sánchez Martínez) against the whites, Hansi Flick was clear: “We will not do it, sure”.
“The referees have a difficult job, my job is to prepare the players well. I have had good experiences with the referees here, without problems. I tell my players to concentrate on their job and not on that of the referees because we cannot change nothing. If something unclear is called, it can be verified. But we have to save our energy for our game, not on the referee,” he said.
And the anecdote from the press conference was right there. “No, I didn’t know that things happen at the Bernabéu,” he commented after hearing a journalist say that things happen at the Bernabéu “that couldn’t be imagined”, alluding to refereeing. “Because of the referees? No, I’ve already explained that I don’t pay attention. But I did play at the Bernabéu as a player with Bayern, many years ago,” said the coach, who as a coach has never attended the Santiago Bernabéu.