Flick: Barcelona cannot only rely on Yamal to turn Copa del Rey tie

Hansi Flick is adamant that Barcelona need more than just Lamine Yamal to overturn a hefty first-leg deficit in their Copa del Rey tie with Atletico Madrid.

Barca crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Atletico in the first leg of the semi-final.

They host Diego Simeone’s team in the return leg on Tuesday.

Barca come into the contest on the back of a 4-1 LaLiga win over Villarreal, in which Yamal scored a hat-trick. He became the youngest player in the Spanish top flight to net a hat-trick in the 21st century.

But Flick knows Yamal cannot be Barca’s only threat as they aim to mount the comeback of all comebacks.

“The team is the focus,” Flick said.

“How he played after [his first goal on Saturday] was great to see. I am very happy about that, but we need everyone. It’s not only Lamine, we need everyone on the pitch.

“We are four goals behind. We want to make the impossible possible. This is the goal tomorrow. We know it won’t be easy, but we never give up.

“A clean sheet is important, but also to believe in our strength, to believe that we can do it.”

1 – Youngest players to score their first hat-trick in @LaLigaEn in the 21st century:

18 years and 230 days – LAMINE YAMAL today vs Villarreal
19 years and 6 days – Gio dos Santos vs Murcia in May 2008
19 years and 125 days – Santi Mina vs Rayo Vallecano in April 2015

Gold. pic.twitter.com/ZffYyeDAep

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 28, 2026

Barca were almost on the wrong end of a four-goal fightback in the Champions League last season, beating Borussia Dortmund 4-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final tie then going 2-0 down in the second leg, before a 3-1 loss ultimately saw them prevail 5-3 on aggregate.

“I was not in this situation before, but I am not scared about this,” said Flick, who will be shorn of Robert Lewandowski but does have Pedri fit and available.

“You always have to believe. Everyone in the stadium will support us. We have a good example, too: the game against Dortmund here last season, 4-0.

“Every half, we want to score two goals. Maybe it could be one goal. We know it’s difficult. We play a fantastic team. They hurt us a lot in the last match.”

Barca’s clash with Villarreal on Saturday marked Flick’s 100th game in charge of the Blaugrana.

Of coaches to oversee 100 games in charge of Barca, Flick has the second-best win percentage (75%), after Luis Enrique (76.2%).