Barcelona just got their first “big” win of the season against Atletico Madrid and it just feels right for Hansi Flick and the culés after a couple of poor performances against top tier teams. This 3-1 victory versus the team managed by Diego “Cholo” Simeone can really boosts Barcelona’s hopes to finish the calendar year at the top of the table.
Don’t get me wrong when I say that the culés just got their first big win of the current campaign. They’ve won important matches this year and you can see that when you look at the positions on La Liga’s table, but they needed a statement victory against a big team.
Barcelona faced PSG and lost 2-1, then got defeated by Real Madrid in El Clásico and finally, the most recent defeat against Chelsea that was very painful for the club by the way they lost that match in Stamford Bridge.
We also have to be fair, Barça suffered a lot of injuries in the first months of the current season. During that time, they lost Raphinha, Lewandowski, Pedri, Joan Garcia, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Fermin Lopez. On top of that, they started recovering these key players and as a result, there has been a mild improvement.
If you want to win trophies at the end of the season, you need to defeat top tier rivals during the year. The victory against the Atleti can mean a lot for this group, because it's not only the three points, it’s how you played to get this massive win. I’m sure that Hansi Flick has to be very satisfied with how his team played against the colchoneros. Without a doubt, he cannot question his team’s hustle, intensity and sacrifice during the ninety minutes.
Obviously, this huge victory won’t matter if they aren’t able to apply that same recipe that they used against Atletico Madrid versus their next rivals on the calendar. Barcelona will face Real Betis on the road this weekend and once again, they will be tested against another European competition quality team that plays great football and is well managed.
For now, Hansi Flick has plenty of time to prepare a plan for this match knowing that he will not have Dani Olmo, Fermin Lopez and Ronald Araujo available for this game.