Too many things happened that Sevillian afternoon in La Cartuja. It was accompanied by the new position of Lamine Yamal in the Catalan eleven, by his father’s troubles in the stands with some fans of the Andalusian team (security had to intervene) and the monumental anger of the green and white fans with the referee Hernández Maeso for the penalty that was awarded by Bartra with the score at 1-4. “I am very happy with the result and with the team, we can always improve in defense, but I am happy with the team’s fight during the 90 minutes of the match,” said Flick, very satisfied with his team’s victory in Seville.
“In the second half we were very tired and it is true that we have had many games in which defensively we have not known how to control the game, but today I am left with the positive, I want to leave the negative aspects aside,” added the German coach.
“We are going to analyze everything, without a doubt, but the important thing is that we have won, scoring goals very frequently against a very technical, high-quality rival. I think the first half was very good,” said Flick.
One of the most interesting novelties that Barcelona presented was the position of Lamine as a playmaker, with Roony, who scored a goal, on the left wing. “Lamine has been good playing inside. And he has also been good on the defensive side. We didn’t rehearse it in the preview, but Lamine is a very intelligent player, who knows how to interpret spaces very well. It is an option to play with Roony on the wing and Lamine in that position. I asked him and he was prepared to play in that position,” the German coach clarified.
“I always trust my team, we are going step by step, today we achieved a good victory,” said Flick, quite satisfied with the victory in La Cartuja. Barcelona, which was defeated by Sevilla 4-1, left the capital of Andalusia on this occasion with an important victory against Betis.
“In two minutes they scored two goals against us and the key is that we had a disastrous game in defense. We had as much attack as they had. There was a very conflictive penalty and we had the virtue of not giving up. They were very effective,” said Manuel Pellegrini, the Betis coach. “I talked about it with the players. We had to lose without giving up, even losing 1-5. We continue to believe in what we do. We had a bad defensive day and they have a lot of quality,” he added. “I haven’t seen the play, but they tell me it was a rebound. I don’t understand why Var was involved in that play. They did exactly the opposite of what they tell us and try to explain,” said the Chilean, scored by Lamine to make it 1-5.
“We have to do a good self-criticism of what has happened. Just like when we won the derby, we will review what has happened and focus on the next game against Dinamo Zagreb,” he concluded.
