Domestic dominance not enough, Barcelona’s ambition is European glory

BARCELONA – As the dust settles on Barcelona’s title celebrations, the cava bottles are sent for recycling and the open-top bus heads back to the garage, work for next season will already start.

They won the title on May 10, after a 2-0 home win against rivals Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.

Hansi Flick’s back-to-back La Liga triumphs have helped bring welcome calm to the club after just one league trophy in the previous, tumultuous five years, but the ultimate objective remains unfulfilled.

Domestic dominance is not enough. Winning the Champions League for the first time since 2015 is Barcelona’s chief ambition, and the proof that they are at the head of Europe’s top table for the first time since all-time great Lionel Messi departed.

Although impressive, this season’s La Liga conquest is a slight downgrade on what Flick’s team achieved last season, claiming a domestic treble and reaching the Champions League semi-finals.

With Lamine Yamal and Pedri shining, Barca believed this would be the year they won their sixth European Cup. But the Catalan side came up short against Atletico Madrid, eliminated 3-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

Flick confirmed last week that winning the Champions League is his main objective. “There are two things I want in life. Firstly, that we win the Champions League,” said the German, whose father died hours before the Clasico.

“We have a good team for the next years, but we must make the right decisions in the transfer periods – they have to be perfect.

“The second thing is I want to be coach (at Camp Nou) when it’s fully finished.”

Improving Barcelona’s squad is the first, but not the only, step to matching the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.

The problem for Barca, as Flick hinted, is that their financial position does not allow them to make mistakes. Every euro counts, there is little margin for error.

This season, Barca’s lack of depth hurt them, missing high-calibre players in key areas. They also stretched the squad to its limit, resulting in injury problems.

Barca did not replace Inigo Martinez, who went to Saudi Arabia. Left-back Gerard Martin filled in as a converted central defender.

Although he and Eric Garcia performed beyond anyone’s expectations, it is an area where they trail the continent’s elite.

Up front, 37-year-old Robert Lewandowski and the erratic Ferran Torres managed to bag enough goals between them to help the team win La Liga, but fall short of Bayern’s Harry Kane or former winger Ousmane Dembele, reinvented as a Ballon d’Or-winning striker with PSG.

With a left-winger and at least one full-back also on the wish list, the Catalan side must lean on their La Masia youth academy and trust the talent coming through.

Flick’s predecessor Xavi Hernandez brought in Yamal and Pau Cubarsi among others, but he has been more cautious.

That was reflected in 18-year-old midfielder Dro Fernandez’s departure to PSG, while Xavi Espart and Tommy Marques, among others, remain on the fringes.

Flick was also slow to trust Marc Bernal again after the holding midfielder recovered from injury.

Perhaps Flick is wary of too much inexperience, given that Barcelona’s European exits have implied a certain naivety. They finished both legs against Atletico with 10 men, part of a wider pattern of vulnerability, indiscipline – and Barca would argue, bad luck.

The coach said after last season’s 7-6 aggregate semi-final defeat by Inter Milan that he would focus on improving Barca’s defence.

Despite those words, they failed to keep a single clean sheet in the Champions League this season. That said, the recent PSG clash with Bayern will give Flick encouragement.

While many said his team could not succeed with their risk-taking, high defensive line, the battle between France and Germany’s best indicated that it is possible.

“The game has such fine margins, you either go fully into the battles, or retreat fully,” said Bayern coach Vincent Kompany. “The in-between doesn’t work against that level of player.”

It seems unlikely Flick will abandon his approach, so Barca hope that with the right additions and another year of growth for their young squad, they can finally end their wait for European glory. AFP