Hansi Flick and FC Barcelona – this is the dream wedding of the underrated

After the game is before the game, and events are piling up at FC Barcelona these days: On Sunday morning, fans celebrated the 3-2 extra-time victory in the Cup final against Real Madrid. Later that same day, the women's team advanced to the Champions League final. On Monday, the club won the European Youth League final in Nyon, while at home, the entire country was paralyzed by a mysterious power outage. And on Wednesday evening, the first team will play the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Inter Milan (9 p.m.).

Who can keep track of all this? Probably only someone like Hansi Flick. Calm as ever, the German coach spoke on Tuesday afternoon about how everyone's focus was now on the Italians and that victories were clearly the best remedy for fatigue: "We should enjoy how well we're playing right now."

Trailing until shortly before the end, like in the cup final against Real Madrid, exhaustion, power outages: Barça can handle all of this as long as Hansi Flick is on the sidelines. The 60-year-old exudes a fundamental confidence that things will turn out well. "I always think positively," says Flick. And that's exactly how his team plays. They seem as if they've become Flick's image.

Flick is steering a heavily indebted, crisis-ridden club of the last decade through the season with a success no one would have imagined. His team has already beaten the galactic Real Madrid 4-0 in the league and 5-2 in the Supercup. Winning the first three Clásicos – only Josep Guardiola managed that before Flick. The arch rivals will meet again in ten days for a league showdown; Barça also leads the league, with four points.

Louis van Gaal once said that FC Bayern suited him like a warm coat. But the man who led the Munich team to the best season in the club's history, with six titles, was Flick in 2020. Now, his style, his ideas, and his method are draped over FC Barcelona, ​​as cozy as a cashmere blanket.

In his first season as Barça coach, Flick integrated more young players from the club's La Masia academy into the team than any previous player. At the same time, he transformed previously considered surplus players like central defender Iñigo Martínez and left winger Raphinha into unexpected top performers.

In the center of attack, the 36-year-old Robert Lewandowski, currently injured, is returning to the goalscoring stats of his best days as Bayern's top scorer. On the right wing, the once-in-a-generation talent Lamine Yamal, 17 , is developing an astonishing understanding of the game. And in the center of Flick's 4-2-3-1 system, Pedri, 22, is both a brilliant executor and the player with the most ball recoveries in Europe's major leagues. "It's been a long time since I've seen a midfielder like him," said Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate after the last league match against FC Barcelona.

Barça has already scored 155 goals this season. The defensive line is positioned daringly high—it's already been dubbed the "Flick Line." Barça's game currently seems so dynamic and attractive that no one would accuse Flick of abandoning the traditional 4-3-3 system. That's why, unlike last season with the hapless coach Xavi Hernández, even the unpopular Olympic Stadium, which, due to its athletics track, is filling up while the Camp Nou is being renovated.

Spain's largest daily newspaper, "El País," recently outlined what the German is doing: Flick doesn't need to "invoke Johan Cruyff or Pep Guardiola" to prove his identification with Barça. He simply lets the facts speak for themselves. Flick has created a "complex-free and admired family" in the traditionally demanding and doubtful club, "one that has finally ended the post-Messi mourning." Barça's decline, in truth, began in recent years with the Argentine, who was sent away in 2021 due to lack of funds . The Champions League semifinal is the club's first since 2019. In just one season, Flick has formed the best Barça of the decade – from a largely unchanged team that was still on the rocks after the previous season.

Today's Barça dispenses with the pedagogical touch of earlier days, with the claims of stylistic superiority or even the goodness of football, which annoyed many opponents during the Guardiola era and was even insinuated by coach Xavi – under the latter, performances on the pitch often contrasted with what was said. Flick has never been a fan of glitzy press conferences or other exaggerations. There are few things he dislikes more than when debates stray from the football realm.

A key experience in his coaching career, Germany's disastrous participation in the 2022 World Cup in every respect, only confirmed Flick's attitude. His critical stance toward host country Qatar at the time created a negativity that undermined Flick's strength in generating positive momentum. The national coach was unable to keep politics out of the team , and his tenure would never recover from the early World Cup exit. The image that stuck in Germany was of a coach who perhaps knew how to manage euphoria, but not crises.

In passing, Flick has also refuted this judgment in Barcelona. During what had been an excellent season so far, his team also built up a negative record: Before Christmas, a run of just five points from seven league games resulted, and Barça had fallen seven points behind Real. But Flick tweaked various screws, brought in retired Wojciech Szczesny in goal, refined coordination in defense, and increased control of the game with the ball-assured Frenkie de Jong. In 2025, Barça have lost just once, two weeks ago in a 3-1 defeat at Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-finals, although the match was meaningless after the 4-0 first leg win.

Because Flick never lost faith, his team didn't either. He'll soon extend his contract, which runs until 2026, but that doesn't concern him at all right now; he just wants to enjoy himself for now. He recently described the level and mentality of his players as "unique in my professional career," and the dedication of the club's staff as "incredible": "There's a fantastic atmosphere here." Hansi Flick and FC Barcelona: It's the dream marriage of the underrated.