Barcelona will be looking for a bit of payback so to speak when they face AS Monaco in their first match of the Champions League.
That's because the French side beat Barcelona quite convincingly, 3-0, in the Joan Gamper a little over a month ago.
"Now it's a new situation, we have the Champions League now and everyone is ready and want to play," Hansi Flick said.
In other words, the Barcelona that Monaco faced in the Joan Gamper isn't the same Barcelona they'll face on Thursday.
The Catalan side has exceeded expectations so far in LaLiga. Not only have they started the season perfect, five wins out of five and in first place, but the way they've done so is worth highlighting.
Aside from a bad first half against Valencia and Rayo Vallecano, Barcelona have been superior against their opponents, thrashing Real Valladolid and Girona 7-0 and 4-1, respectively, in their last two matches.
"We're playing well and that's the idea," Flick said. "When I started preseason, that was the objective and we're doing well. The pressure, the commitment of the players is fantastic and the quality of the squad, of the youngsters, is very good."
Even more impressive is Flick has turned around this Barcelona team despite missing a number of important players.
Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati have all been out with injuries. Dani Olmo is out for up to five weeks after picking up an injury in the match against Girona and Fermin Lopez, who was injured during international break, suffered another injury during training leaving him out for an additional two to three weeks.
Flick has had to shuffle the deck around and will need to do so again against Monaco. Ferran Torres and Pablo Torre are two options to take Olmo's place.
Monaco will be a tough opponent as they are also in good form in Ligue 1. The French side are tied for second place, only two points behind PSG. In many respects, this will be a much different game than the one from the Joan Gamper.
"It's different but it's tru that we're going to learn from what we did wrong against Monaco at the Gamper," Jules Kounde said. "We're in good form but so are they, a difficult match awaits us.
While Barcelona have been hit by the injury bug, the good news is they do get Ansu Fati back. The young forward received the medical green light and was included in the squad list. Should Flick see it fit, he could make his first appearance of the season against Monaco.
βAnsu Fati is ready to play. When he is on the field, he really enjoys it; he has scored a lot of goals in training and we need players like him.β
β FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 18, 2024
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Barcelona are aware that they need to get off to a good start in the Champions League if nothing else to build confidence. Last season they got to the quarterfinals after consecutive seasons crashing out in the group stage.
It ended in disappointment, falling to PSG but in a tie where they could have gone through had Araujo not been sent off in the return leg.
What Flick has managed to do far is get the best out of Raphinha and been able to make use of a healthy Pedri. It's led to Robert Lewandowski looking like the Lewandowski from the first season and it's also caused Lamine Yamal to continue improving. The onus of creating everything doesn't solely fall on him, causing the defense to not only gameplan for the 17-year-old.
Defensively, Barcelona will need to be solid. Despite the strong start, they've only kept a clean sheet once out of the five games. The new Champions League format gives Barcelona some margin for error but they'll undoubtedly be looking to kick off their European campaign on a positive note.