‘Too soon’ to call Barcelona contenders despite Bayern Munich romp: Hansi Flick

BARCELONA – Barcelona coach Hansi Flick insisted it was too early to say his team were contenders to win the Champions League, even after they hammered six-time winners Bayern Munich 4-1 on Oct 23.

The Catalans last won the trophy in 2015 and had lost their previous six matches against Bayern, but they crushed last season’s semi-finalists at the Olympic Stadium with Raphinha scoring a hat-trick.

“It’s too soon (to say we’re contenders), we just started the season, we’re on a long road in La Liga and the Champions League,” Flick told reporters.

“We’re aiming to go game by game and we’re preparing ourselves like that.”

La Liga leaders Barcelona face Spanish and European champions Real Madrid on Oct 26 in a mouth-watering league Clasico, which will be another key test for Flick’s side.

“We’re obviously very proud of the result tonight but on Saturday it continues, another hard game against a team with a name that everybody knows,” he added.

“We want to put on another great performance...

“With a result like this, the team deserved it and also their celebration after the game.”

Raphinha opened the scoring inside the first minute and, after Harry Kane equalised for Bayern, Robert Lewandowski put Barca back ahead.

Two more strikes by former Leeds United winger Raphinha, on his 100th appearance for the club, sealed the Spanish giants’ emphatic victory.

“Raphinha is for me a very good example of how the team works, Raphinha is someone who always gives everything in training and in games too, he plays with a lot of intensity,” said Flick.

“He’s very important for us, he presses, and today we saw too he scores goals... he’s got a good dynamic with the ball and today had an excellent game.

“He’s a player who is both defensive and attacking, with intensity, dynamism and technique.”

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany, meanwhile, said his team paid the price for missed opportunities after they suffered their second consecutive defeat in the competition.

The Belgian said his players had not been able to make the most of the chances they created after Kane’s volley, instead they left open the door for Barca to go ahead again and kill off the game with quick counter-attacks.

“I think maybe one very, very simple analysis I can make is when you have control of a game and you have so much possession in a place like today against a team like we played today, you have to use the opportunity to take the momentum away from the opposition team,” he said.

“The way it went in the start of the first half is what we thought we could achieve in this game. It was where it felt like we could edge this game. We felt like this could turn for us.

“But in key moments we got outdone and for that reason the result is fairly, fairly heavy. We played against a good team but we have the ambition to win these games so today we know we have to learn from this game.”

Bayern are 23rd in the 36-team Champions League standings on three points after three games, while Barca are 10th with six points. AFP, REUTERS