Hansi Flick insists Barcelona must keep pushing as nothing is decided despite their dominant 4-1 win over Espanyol on Saturday.
Real Madrid’s draw against Girona on Friday night had given Barcelona the chance to extend their lead at the top of the standings.
The Catalan giants took the opportunity massively with an impressive win over their local rivals as they moved nine points clear at the top.
“It’s not done yet. Nine points is good. It is a good feeling. But we have to do our homework”, Flick stated.
“We can’t have the attitude that it’s done. That is the wrong way and I would not accept this. Until it’s done, we have to play our best.”
Ferran Torres scored twice in the first half from two assists from Lamine Yamal to give Barcelona a 2-0 lead heading into the break.
Espanyol briefly equalized through Pol Lozano, but Barcelona scored twice in the final stages of the game to seal a 4-1 result.
Yamal scored their third goal in the 87th minute, before Marcus Rashford completed the rout with their fourth two minutes later.
“The team is in a good mood, you can see that, the atmosphere is good. The players are in a good moment”, Flick added, referring to the midweek clash against Atletico Madrid.
“We need the perfect game and we are able to do this. I know Atlético is a fantastic team, but we also have a great team.
“I think everyone is ready for that. Everyone wants to show we can do this. We want to go there and put up a great fight — often games are decided by momentum and hopefully on [Tuesday] it’s ours”, the German concluded.
Barcelona will now head to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano in midweek to face Atletico Madrid, hoping to turnaround a two-goal deficit from last week’s first leg at Camp Nou.
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