Hansi Flick Proud of Barcelona Despite Copa del Rey Exit
Hansi Flick, Barcelona's head coach, expressed pride in his team's performance despite failing to reach the Spanish King's Cup final this season. Barcelona defeated visiting Atletico Madrid 3-0 at Camp Nou on Tuesday evening in the semi-final second leg, but it wasn't enough for the Catalans to advance to the Seville final and continue defending the title they won last season—they fell one goal short of extra time.
Barcelona had lost 0-4 to Atletico in the first leg at Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid, ending the tie with a 4-3 aggregate win for Diego Simeone's side. Marc Bernal scored twice, with Raphinha adding a penalty as Barcelona pushed to make the impossible possible.
Post-match, Flick said: "Obviously, I'm sad we didn't achieve our goal of reaching the Seville final, but we can be very proud. We had chances for 4 or 5 goals, and we must focus on that for upcoming matches and challenges."
The German coach added, per Barcelona's official website: "We gave our all, which is what I wanted to see. We delivered over 100%, and that's fantastic. Today, everyone played with full passion—the performance was outstanding from our side, but it wasn't meant to be, and we must accept that."
Flick noted his team was "brave" and praised the youth products: "We achieved this thanks to La Masia academy players like Cubarsi, Gerard Martin, and Marc Bernal—this makes me happy; they have exceptional talent."
He concluded: "Everyone agrees on our playing style, and we saw it on the pitch. We must continue this approach but first recover from this setback and advance step by step; the road is still long in La Liga and Champions League."
Barcelona tops La Liga standings (which they won last season) with 64 points from 26 matches, four ahead of rivals Real Madrid, with 12 games left. They prepare to face Newcastle United next week in Champions League Round of 16—the title elusive since 2015.
Atletico Madrid will meet the winner of Athletic Bilbao vs Real Sociedad in the King's Cup final.
