After Andreas Christensen spoke to the press, it was time for Hansi Flick to give his thoughts ahead of FC Barcelona's match away to Newcastle. About what to expect, he said that "It's one of the best, maybe the best atmosphere here in the Premier League, and I expect really a strong team, a tall team, with high intensity, with a lot of dynamism.", before going on to say that "Eddie Howe and his coaching staff have done a fantastic job."

Time to learn from last season's Champions League

The game at St James' Park is the first test to get over what happened in the Champions League last season, after the late defeat by Inter. However, the blaugrana coach is clear, stating "it's all about learning and also getting better every day." He went on to say that the recent match against Valencia was a marker, where "everyone wants to show how good he is" and that "we have a really young team, with three players out."

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He was asked about many individual players, but didn't want to speak about those absent, such as Lamine Yamal. However, on Raphinha he said he is "one of our key players. He starts the press and the dynamic for the whole team and this is really good to see." Rashford is returning to his country to play and he said he hopes "that he can show in England the same performance he did on Sunday." When asked about the defence and the goals conceded in last season's Champions League, he assured that he "doesn't think about it too much."

Time to continue along the same lines

He prefers to refer to the recent big win against Valencia, stating that "Our preseason was OK, we won every match" but that "we didn't have this quality we normally have" in the early matches in LaLiga. He went on to say that "On Sunday it was like last season, and this is good for me to see this."

Not long to go now to see how his players fare, as Europe's premier club competition kicks off for the blaugranes at 9.00pm CEST 18 September in Newcastle.

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