Barcelona coach Hansi Flick felt… Eric Garcia's early red card was the turning point in Thursday's 2-1 defeat to Monaco and he insisted his side are strong enough to progress in the new Champions League.
Garcia was sent off after 10 minutes for a last-man foul before the goals. Magnes Akliouche and Jorge Ilenikhenaon either side of Yamal sheetThe equaliser gave the Ligue 1 side three points at the Stade Louis II.
The defeat was Barca's first under Flick after an impressive start to the campaign that has seen five consecutive La Liga wins so far.
“I think we defended with a lot of passion,” said the German coach in the post-match press conference. “Lamine's goal brought us back to 1-1. We had chances. In the end, we tried to stay in the game with a compact defence, very close together, but you can also see that (Monaco) puts a lot of players in at enormous speed. It was not easy to defend.”
“After the red card the game changed completely. The positive thing is that we tried to defend as a team and attack as a team. We had chances, but they deserved the 2-1 and we have to accept that.
“I'm not worried. We have to analyse it, but now I tell the team: 'Watch out', because in the locker room they were a little disappointed.”
Barça will host Young Boys in their next Champions League match on October 1 and will still have to face Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Benfica and Atalanta, among others, in the competition.
In the new format, the top eight teams from the league stage will advance directly to the round of 16, and teams finishing between ninth and twenty-fourth will enter a knockout round and 12 teams will be eliminated.
Despite the defeat to Monaco in the opening game, Flick has no doubt that Barça will qualify for the next round.
“No,” he replied when asked if Thursday's defeat was further proof that Barca have a Champions League problem, having failed to reach the last 16 in two of the last three years.
“You see the situation today. After 10 minutes, the red card. It totally changed our idea, our game plan. We have to accept it. It happens.
“I think we are strong enough to have a good Champions League. We have seven games left and I think we will win many games and in the end we will achieve our objectives.”
The game changed when Garcia knocked down Minamino Takumi after the former Liverpool striker intercepted a short pass from the Barça goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen in the early stages of the match. Ter Stegen said the mistake was a misunderstanding between the two and claimed that Barça deserved a point.
“Yes, for sure (the red card affected the match),” he told reporters. “There was a misunderstanding in that situation. I feel bad for Eric because it cost him. Then we have to play 80 minutes with one less player.”
“It shouldn't have happened, but in football it happens from time to time. It hurts because even with 10 men we showed up.
“The match was not under control, but we showed our worth. In the end, we lost by a goal, the second, which came out of nowhere and was not really deserved at that moment.”
Among the positive aspects of Barça's defeat was the return of Ansu Fatiwho returned from injury to make his first appearance of the season.
“I saw him in the last few weeks of training and when we started pre-season, I saw him really different,” Flick said.
“I was at Brighton last season and I saw him in training and in a game. Here he is totally different. He is focused, he brings his quality on the pitch. He needs some time now, but he will get there.”
Fati remains the youngest Champions League scorer at 17 years and 40 days old when he scored against Inter Milan in 2019, but he watched from the bench as team-mate Yamal became the second-youngest to score in the competition at 17 years and 68 days.
Yamal has already scored four goals and provided four assists in six games in all competitions this season, which has seen opposing teams start to bank on him or treat him differently. As a result, Flick dropped him early in the game against Monaco to reserve him for Sunday's trip to Villarreal in La Liga.
“Lamine tried hard today,” explained Flick. “It was a difficult match for him, they attacked him very hard. That's how it is. He has to adapt to this. For Pau (Cubarsí) and for him, (taking them off) was also thinking about Sunday.”
