Hansi Flick has thrown down a challenge to his Barcelona players: prove they can live with the financial muscle and intensity of “the best league in the world” when they walk into St. James’ Park on Tuesday night.
LaLiga’s leaders head to Tyneside for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Newcastle United, a rematch of sorts after the sides met in the league phase earlier in the season. Barcelona edged that one 2-1, Marcus Rashford scoring twice against Eddie Howe’s team as the Catalans opened their campaign with a win before eventually finishing fifth in the new-look group format.
This, though, feels very different. Knockout football, a febrile English crowd and a Newcastle side that, for all their domestic stumbles, have found a version of themselves under the European floodlights.
Barcelona know this terrain well. They have faced English opposition 33 times in Champions League knockout ties and have won 10 of their last 12 such clashes since 2014. The Magpies are simply the latest Premier League club trying to block their route to the quarter-finals of UEFA’s showpiece competition.
And there are plenty of English obstacles around. Newcastle are one of six Premier League teams in the last 16, alongside Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal – a number that underlines why Flick was so effusive about the division’s strength.
“The Premier League is a great league – for me, it’s the best league in the world and they have strong teams,” the German said on the eve of the game. “Of course, they have also a lot of money to make the right decisions hopefully, but they have done it because they are… how many, six teams now in the next round?”
There was respect in his voice, but no hint of inferiority.
“For me, okay, we are strong, we have huge quality also, not only Newcastle or Manchester City or Arsenal or Tottenham or like the others,” he continued. “We have to continue our way, our style, how we want to play. This is our philosophy.”
That philosophy is non-negotiable for Flick. Barcelona have not lifted the Champions League trophy since 2015, yet he is determined that any new run at the title must look and feel like Barça.
“We want to play like Barca in the Champions League because our supporters are proud of us and the way we play football, so this is what we want to show also tomorrow.”
Newcastle will test that conviction. Howe’s side are on the longest unbeaten run in their Champions League history – five games without defeat, three wins and two draws – a stark contrast to their uneven Premier League campaign. They sit 12th in the table, nine points off the top four, a reminder that they have often saved their sharpest performances for Europe.
Flick is not fooled by the league position.
“The Champions League is different. Everyone who plays now at this stage wants to show their best,” he said. “They are a team which on transition, they have very fast players and very good players, outstanding players, and we have to handle that and manage it.”
St. James’ Park under the lights, with a team built to spring forward at speed, is hardly the ideal setting for a side that wants to dominate the ball and push full-backs high. Flick knows Barcelona’s control will be tested as much as their courage.
All of this comes against a typically turbulent backdrop in Catalonia. Club president Joan Laporta has been embroiled in a public row with Flick’s predecessor Xavi, and a presidential election looms next week. It is the kind of noise that can easily seep into a dressing room.
Flick, though, cut the figure of a coach determined to shut the door on the politics and focus on the pitch.
“It’s one of the most important weeks in the season now because we want to go to the next round. We have a game here, and we have to focus on the game,” he said, brushing aside the off-field drama.
What he did dwell on was his own relationship with the club and the project he believes is taking shape.
“What I can say is everything here in Barcelona is great. I’m here one-and-a-half years, and I’m enjoying every single day working with this fantastic team, with these fantastic players, with this staff around.
“Now we are building this club also for the future. This is what we want to do. When I have gone, maybe the next coach can say, ‘Okay, Hansi did a fantastic job, I have good infrastructure’. This is what we are doing now.”
There was a glimpse there of a coach thinking beyond a single tie, even beyond a single season. But on Tuesday night, the long-term vision gives way to a very immediate examination.
Barcelona arrive as LaLiga’s standard-bearers, a club steeped in European history, walking into a stadium desperate to write some of its own. Flick has asked his players to show that their ideas, their style and their talent can stand up not just to Newcastle, but to the power of a league he openly admires.
If they pass this test in the North East, it will not just be another step towards the last eight. It will be a statement that Barcelona, even in an era dominated by English money and English numbers, still intend to shape the story of this competition.
