Hansi Flick’s free-wheeling Barcelona have batteredBarcelona and Real Madrid – there’s no team playing better in Europe right now
After yet another summer of uncertainty in Catalunya, the Blaugrana have somehow emerged as a fearsome force
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Monday’s Ballon d’Or ceremony was eerily similar to Saturday’s Clasico: Real Madrid didn’t turn up while Barcelona had a blast. The Catalan contingent were all smiles as they rocked up on the red carpet in Paris – and not just because they got to meet Hollywood star Natalie Portman.
Barca Femeni occupied all three podium places in the women’s Ballon d’Or vote, with Aitana Bonmati taking top spot, while Lamine Yamal became the youngest male player ever to win The Kopa Trophy.
Madrid, of course, were named Men’s Club of the Year, while Carlo Ancelotti landed the Johan Cruyff Trophy for best men’s coach of 2024 – but Los Blancos still end up looking like losers after petulantly boycotting the event simply because Rodri beat Vinicius Jr to the men’s Ballon d’Or.
One would have thought that Madrid would have had bigger concerns right now, given Hansi Flick’s Barca have emerged as a serious threat to their hopes of retaining their Primera Division and Champions League titles…
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Getty‘Beating only ‘normal’ teams’
This time last week, Barca were feeling a little underappreciated themselves. They weren’t anywhere near as amusingly annoyed as Madrid over their perceived lack of recognition – but Yamal admitted that he and his team-mates felt that they deserved more credit for their excellent start to the season.
Nobody was quite sure what to expect from Barca after another turbulent summer in which Xavi was dismissed as coach in the most farcical and disrespectful of circumstances, before the Catalan’s financial problems once again became the focus of their market activity – or lack thereof.
Barca exploded out of the blocks in La Liga, though, winning their first seven games, and scoring 23 goals in the process. However, a 4-2 defeat at Osasuna, coupled with a self-inflicted 2-1 loss in their Champions League opener against Monaco, cast doubt on Barca’s true strength.
Yamal pointed out, “They said we were beating only ‘normal’ teams.” However, the past week has changed everything.
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GettyNo solution to Barca’s brilliance
Last Wednesday, in their first meeting with a bona fide heavyweight, Barcelona battered Bayern Munich at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, with Raphina hitting a hat-trick and Robert Lewandowski netting against his former club.
A stunned Vincent Kompany admitted afterwards that his side simply couldn’t cope with Barca’s awesome attack. “I don’t want to beat around the bush,” the Bayern boss said. “We didn’t find a solution to the counter-attacks and the individual play of the front three.”
And Madrid couldn’t either.
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Getty Images SportAncelotti’s plan falls flat
The build up to Saturday’s Clasico was dominated by talk of how Ancelotti would go about containing Yamal, Lewandowski and Raphinha, while at the same time exploiting Flick’s favoured high line, which the ex-Bayern coach uses to pressurise opponents inside their own half. The Italian refused to disclose his precise plan to the press in his pre-match press conference but revealed, “I have something in mind.”
Whatever it was, it didn’t work, with Ancelotti, Madrid and Kylian Mbappe all made to look ridiculous in a humiliating 4-0 loss in their own back yard – with the Frenchman caught offside a historic eight times in total while the hosts were repeatedly picked off on the break by their great rivals.
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AFP‘Defensive work of this team is spectacular’
Flick’s bold tactical approach had been integral to Barca’s resounding victory, which propelled them six points clear of Madrid after just 11 rounds of La Liga.
“It’s incredible to have the balls to have such a high defensive line,” midfielder Marc Casado pointed out afterwards. “But we’ve been doing it all season and the defensive work of this team is spectacular. It’s incredible and, at the moment, it’s working for us.”
There can be no questioning that particular claim, with Barca having just put eight goals past two of the strongest sides in Europe while conceding only once in the process.
There is, of course, an inherent risk involved in compressing the pitch to such an extent that acres of space is always left in behind the backline. Barca are undoubtedly going to get opened up at times. However, Flick sees this tactic as a calculated gamble, and it’s paid off for him before at Bayern, with whom he won a treble thanks in no small part to his team’s intense pressing game. He’ll also feel that this Barca side is only going to get better, and for a couple of reasons.
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AFP‘Unique’
Firstly, there’s the fact that he’s only been working with this group for about three months, during which time he’s also had to cope with an injury crisis. Imagine how good Barca could be when Flick has a fully-fit squad of players that all know exactly what he wants from them.
The margin for growth is enormous, particularly when one considers that Barca’s starting line-up at the Bernabeu contained four 21-year-olds (Alejandro Balde, Pedri, Casado and Fermin Lopez) and a pair of 17-year-olds (Yamal and Pau Cubarsi).
Five of that sextet are academy products, while Pedri was signed at 16, prompting former Barca centre-back Gerard Pique to enthuse after the Clasico, “We are unique. They (Madrid) can never be like us. With all the young people of La Masia. What a retical. What pride!”
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Getty Images Sport‘We can beat anyone’
Of course, pride usually precedes a fall and, as we’ve already seen this season, Barca are by no means in fallible. Furthermore, if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that seasons are growing ever longer and ever tougher, and when it comes to the crunch, Madrid somehow always find a way to end up on top.
Nonetheless, the Blaugrana deserve enormous credit for emerging from yet another summer of uncertainty looking more confident, assured and organised on the field than they have done for some time. They have some fantastic young footballers in every department and a forward line that strikes fear into even the strongest sides. Indeed, it’s telling that Kompany didn’t even think his side’s 4-1 drubbing by Barca was a shock result.
Yamal wasn’t surprised either, that’s for sure. “We’ve proven that we can beat anyone,” he said. “We believe we are the best team in the world.” Right now, they probably are.
