In his reasons Hansi Flick did not underestimate Ossasuna, but it was a difficult decision for him in this match. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha needed rest to be physically prepared for the Champions League, but as a consequence Barcelona's performance was very bad. Barcelona's defense in this match was really problematic and Hansi Flick didn't have many other options when several defenders were injured, so this defeat had to be accepted.
Ossasuna will eventually secure 3 home points in this match considering they have scored 4 goals. Barcelona are 4-1 down to Ossasuna and this is really a result that was very unexpected to happen. What can be done, it seems like everything is over.
Ossasuna will eventually secure 3 home points in this match considering they have scored 4 goals. Barcelona are 4-1 down to Ossasuna and this is really a result that was very unexpected to happen. What can be done, it seems like everything is over.
I wish I knew what the odds were for Osasuna to win with a handicap of -2. Probably something around 50.0
As for rotation, Flick changed most of the defense/midfield too. I wonder if he really believed that it would be an easy game and he could experiment here without problems?
Update: Yamal scored a goal, but the score still didn’t become decent after that, 4-2 is too much.
Well the handicap you are talking about was indeed -2.5 at the time of you writing the post. It must have been huge. Barcelona winning the game was like 1.55 or something and Osasuna was around 7.0 or 6.5 or so. Put on top of that a -2.5 handicap, that was definitely huge.
As for the rotation, I think it was bad by Flick to exaggerate like that. When I saw how many players he rotated, I already had a feeling that Barcelona is risking a big chance here to be the big winner of this weekend. Real Madrid and Atletico stealing points from each other and Flick thinks it is time for rotation.
You guys recall that Flick was giving a press conference where he said that he should have given one player who got injured more breaks? Maybe this was his response to his own statement that day.
I don't fully understand his decision as the Champions League game shouldn't be that hard. It's not like they are up against Inter Milan or another team one that level. Young Boys Bern next and then he goes for such a rotation against Osasuna, which by the way shouldn't have been underestimated in the first place.