Barcelona head coach Hansi Dieter Flick could not hide his disappointment after watching his side’s rollercoaster performance in an eight-goal Copa del Rey thriller against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Flick’s charges endured a nightmare start to the game, conceding with just 46 seconds before going two goals down inside six minutes of first half football. The Blaugrana responded superbly as Pedri, Pau Cubarsi and Inigo Martinez found the net to turn the game on its head before half time.
Barcelona looked to be cruising to victory after Robert Lewandowski doubled their lead in the 74th. However Barca failed to see out the game as Atleti mounted a comeback of their own in the last ten minutes of the game.
Marcos Llorente capitalized on the Blaugrana’s lethargic defending to thump Angel Correa’s hopeful pass into the net in the 84th minute before Alexander Sorlorth took full advantage of Joules Kounde’s slip to level matters on the stroke of full-time.
Speaking after the game, Flick expressed his disappointment with Barcelona’s defending during the game, lamenting the huge number of chances his side conceded.
“After what has happened, what I can say is that I am disappointed with the result,” Flick said as per Forbes. “We played great football and created a lot of chances after conceding two goals at the beginning.
“But in the end we conceded too many chances, they are very good in attack and you can’t give them so many chances. At half-time I had already warned that we couldn’t give them so much.
“It’s not easy now to explain the match. We are disappointed, but the game was beautiful. I focus more on this to maintain the confidence of the players. It can’t be on what happened, it seemed too easy but we were facing a wonderful team.
“They have a lot of power and it is not easy to defend them. We have seen that we just need to give them an opportunity for them take advantage of it.
The German gaffer will be looking to address his side’s defensive frailties before their La Liga meeting with Real Sociedad on Sunday, March 2 as they look to continue their title charge.
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