Furious FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick criticized his players following what could prove to be … [+] a costly collapse at Celta Vigo on Saturday.
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Furious FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick slammed his players following what could prove to be a costly collapse at Celta Vigo on Saturday.
The Catalans were 2-0 ahead in Balaidos through strikes from Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.
After Marc Casado was shown a red card for picking up a careless second yellow with eight minutes to spare, however, the tide soon turned.
Jules Kounde made a dreadful mistake in defense criticized by Gavi, and allowed Alfonso Gonzalez to pull one back on 84 minutes.
Then two later, Hugo Alvarez slotted his effort past Inaki Pena to guarantee a point.
Previously as many as nine in front of bitter rival and La Liga holder Real Madrid, with a 4-0 win in El Clasico having much to do with such an advantage, Barca still leads La Liga but can have its advantage just to just one point if Carlo Ancelotti’s men win their two games in hand.
Following the full time whistle, Flick was clearly seething and said that his team played a “very bad game”.
“Not just the final 10 minutes. I didn’t like the whole performance,” Flick added. “We made too many mistakes. We did not control the ball. We must return to our level”.
The German picked up on Barca’s “passing game” being incredibly off key. “No control, no confidence with the ball. We made it very easy,” he also explained.
Flick clarified that he didn’t make changes at half time based on the cards that players such as Gerard Martin had picked up, with this decision instead influenced by “the performance on the field”.
Shortly after Flick’s quick post-match interview with DAZN EspanaCope’s Helena Condis reported that the manager held a crisis meeting with all his players in the locker room.
“Flick was very angry because he thinks they played a very bad game. There are no excuses,” Condis wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Coming up short in its last two La Liga outings, Barca will look to return to winning ways against Las Palmas at home on Saturday.
Before that, Brest travel to Montjuic in the Champions League.
