Lamine Yamal issues defiant message to any disillusioned Barça fans: “This isn’t over”

Barcelona’s comeback bid began on Thursday. At least in Hansi Flick’s mind. With less than a week until the second leg, talk in Barcelona will revolve nonstop around next Tuesday’s game at the Metropolitano, even with a derby still to come first. A 2-0 deficit has only been overturned once in Europe – when Manchester United did it in Paris – but Barça are clinging to a few reasons to believe it can be done.

Among them is the fact that Flick’s Barcelona have won three of their four games at the Metropolitano (4-2, 1-0 and 2-1), and that the numbers from the first leg favored them over Atlético (18 shots to the home side’s five). The locker room, at least publicly, believes. First and foremost, so does its biggest star. “This isn’t over, culés; we’ll give everything in the second leg. All together, always,” Lamine Yamal posted on Instagram. The No. 10 emptied the tank to keep the man disadvantage from weighing too heavily.

Barcelona, who already came up short in the Copa tie, now face a very similar scenario. They know they will need a perfect game if they are to leave the Metropolitano with a semifinal ticket in hand. Flick, who already has the return leg on his mind, knows he will have to come up with something new in Barça’s structure to surprise Simeone after five meetings this season.

He will need a team operating at full capacity, which suggests that against Espanyol he could rest some of his biggest names. João Cancelo, Pedri, Dani Olmo and even Lamine himself could be given a breather in the derby. Flick’s obsession is for the team to produce more in attack and, above all, to be more clinical. Barcelona have already been shut out twice by Atlético Madrid this season, which means he will have to make tactical adjustments to help his side create more.

Barça’s goal will be to plant a seed of panic in Atlético. An early goal would help do exactly that. The perfect game will also require standout individual performances. The best versions of Lamine, Fermín and Pedri will be needed, as will the support of the No. 9s, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, who have been struggling in front of goal for some time. They will need to make the most of set pieces, give up as little as they did in the first leg without conceding … and have that small slice of luck that makes everything break your way.

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