{"id":11258,"date":"2025-01-22T09:05:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T09:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=11258"},"modified":"2025-01-22T09:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T09:05:37","slug":"barcelona-coach-hansi-flick-praises-team-after-win-over-benfica-says-i-like-what-i-saw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=11258","title":{"rendered":"”Barcelona coach Hansi Flick praises team after win over Benfica, says ‘I like what I saw’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Barcelona manager Hansi Flick (59) pointed to his side’s mentality as key to their 5-4 comeback win at Benfica on Tuesday that secured their spot in the Champions League last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming off a disappointing 1-1 LaLiga draw at Getafe<\/a>, Barca<\/a> were 3-1 down at half-time<\/a> after Benfica<\/a>‘s Vangelis Pavlidis<\/a> netted a hat-trick, with the Greek pouncing on some sloppy defending from the visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although his men improved after the break, they were 4-2 down towards the end of the match before goals from Robert Lewandowski<\/a>, Eric Garcia<\/a> and Raphinha<\/a> secured their comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was a very crazy game. The most positive thing was the mentality we had. We came back and that’s wonderful. That’s football and that’s why we love it,” <\/strong>Flick told Movistar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a comeback like this. It is unbelievable. We didn’t play so well in the first half. They are very good and scored first.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They made us defend very deep. We were not in the right position. In the second half we were better and substitutions helped us a lot.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flick’s decision to field goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny<\/a> in place of Inaki Pena<\/a> could have backfired after errors by the Pole led to two Benfica goals in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Barca boss stood by Szczesny, adding that he looked better after halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Which player does not make mistakes? It is normal. Szczesny had some mistakes, but all the players made mistakes in the first half,” <\/strong>Flick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We win together, we lose together. We are a team. I liked what I saw in the second half, he saved a clear chance for Benfica.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flick said his side would need to turn their attention to their next game at home to Valencia in LaLiga, where they are third, seven points behind leaders Real Madrid<\/a>. They then face Atalanta<\/a> at home in the Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The victories give us time to keep believing in this project and send the message to the young players that we can and want to improve,” <\/strong>he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s very important to focus on the Valencia game and we also want to beat Atalanta. We don’t have to think that we are at ease.”<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick (59) pointed to his side’s mentality as key to their 5-4 comeback win at Benfica on Tuesday that secured their spot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11261,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions\/11261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}