Star exes welcome Bayern to Barcelona
Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski and his coach Hansi Flick welcome their former club Bayern Munich in a mouthwatering Champions League clash at the Barcelona Olympic Stadium tonight at 9pm.
Flick, who led Bayern to a sextuple in 2020, has swiftly transformed a Barcelona side who won nothing last season under Xavi Hernandez into a swashbuckling force despite injuries to several key players, with the team now in first place in La Liga after nine wins from 10 matches.
Driving them forward is the 36-year-old Lewandowski with 14 goals in 12 matches across all competitions.
Coming up against the team where he spent eight seasons between 2014 and 2022, Flick, who was at Bayern between 2019 and 2021, says of Lewandowski: “Robert is an absolute professional, working hard on his fitness – this body he has, it’s not this age.
“[Scoring] is his job and he is doing this great over years now, not only this year... this is a goal-getter, a striker who scores goals.”
He adds of Lewa facing Bayern: “It’s never a battle about players, it’s a battle about the [whole] team.
“Robert scores the goals, that’s very important for us [and] he’s well connected to the other players – this for me is the way the team has to work.”
TONIGHT’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
Atalanta v Celtic, Brest v Leverkusen (both 6.45pm), Atletico Madrid v Lille, Barcelona v Bayern Munich, Benfica v Feyenoord, RB Salzburg v Dinamo Zagreb, Man City v Sparta Prague, RB Leipzig v Liverpool, Young Boys v Inter Milan (all 9pm)
We go again 🍿#UCL pic.twitter.com/5EEC6uHwCF
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) October 23, 2024