Flick, after the victory against Madrid in the Clásico: "We still don't feel like champions."

Hansi Flick is one of those who prefers to keep his feet firmly on the ground. While his players celebrated on the pitch with their fans after a victory against Real Madrid that puts them two points away from clinching the La Liga title, the Barça manager preferred to tone down the euphoria. "We don't feel like champions yet. It would be nice to win three titles, but we still have one more win to get," the German told Movistar immediately after the match. If Ancelotti 's team fails to beat Mallorca at the Bernabéu next Wednesday, or if the Catalans prevail over Espanyol at Cornellà-El Prat on Thursday, the La Liga title will mathematically be in Barcelona's hands.

The German, however, didn't hesitate to celebrate the victory against their eternal rival, their fourth consecutive win this season, even though victory wasn't entirely clear for many stages of the match. "This goes out to the fans and the players. It's fantastic. Madrid has a great team, but we managed to come back from 2-0 down. And all of this after the Milan game, after more than 120 minutes. It wasn't easy to deal with, and I think we did very well, although I'm afraid I'll have to get my heart checked," said Flick , who admitted that his team still has flaws to correct, especially when it comes to their defensive side.

"I think we need to improve a lot in defense. When we press, everything goes well, but when you make a mistake, especially in that first goal we conceded, everything gets complicated, although it's also true that the team makes good decisions as a collective and we had great players in front of us. That's no excuse, but playing every three days isn't easy training for this type of thing. What's clear is that we need to improve, and we're already thinking about preseason to fine-tune all of this," he emphasized.

The coach also admitted that he experienced the match with some tension. "There were a lot of emotions on the bench, a lot of decisions to be made. With the penalty or the last goal, I think we could have taken a step forward, but with the 4-3 we still got the win, and that's what we wanted at the end of the day," he stated in a press conference afterward, casually letting slip his displeasure with Hernández Hernández 's last two decisions, both inside the Real Madrid box and around it, in the final stretch of the match.

Lamine Yamal

Lamine Yamal , of course, also received much praise. "He's not just a kid, believe me. He's confident, he believes in what he can do, and he's very intelligent. For me, the important thing was for everyone to look ahead to the Clásico after what happened in Milan, without forgetting that match either. He scored a very important goal, he helped us come back, and at 17, he's very talented," the German emphasized.

The Rocafonda native had already echoed some of that sentiment shortly before. "It was a very important match, and the distance we have now is also important. Especially after the Champions League match, which is already forgotten. Now it's time to enjoy it, although we have to make up for those goals we gave away at the end, because they didn't create any clear chances," said the forward, who, despite everything, has Europe's top competition firmly in mind. "The Champions League is played every year, and we'll try until we win it, but the important thing was to win this Clásico to get closer to the La Liga title," he said on Movistar.