Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has named a club he considers one of the favorites to win the Champions League this season – and it’s not his.
Europe’s premier club competition is back for the seventh round of the league stage this week, with just one more round of fixtures as teams battle it out for as many positions as possible.
Barcelona then overcame a disappointing start loss to Monaco in the first gamestringing together five straight wins against Young Boys, Bayern Munich, Red Star Belgrade, Brest and Borussia Dortmund to move into second place in the table behind leaders Liverpool.
The Premier League side have won six out of six, the only team with a 100% performance, and Flick admitted that Arne Slott’s men are the ones to beat.
Barca face Benfica in Lisbon on Tuesday night, with coach Bruno Lage tipping the Catalans as favorites to lift the trophy in May. Flick dismissed that prediction, commenting on the difficulty of going all the way and sending Liverpool off instead.
“We will see in the future if it will [Lage] is right. It is one of the most difficult competitions to win. Liverpool is one of my favorites,” Flick explained to reporters.
“Victory in Champions League is one of the hardest things in the world. We are doing well, but there are some very good teams who are also doing well.
“We are in three competitions. If you look at the results in La Liga, we are not doing well, but if you look [Getafe] game [on Saturday]we are very well. It’s difficult to play against Getafe.”
Barcelona’s domestic form has been in stark contrast to their European results. They dropped just three points through the first 12 La Liga games to lead, Flick’s side have managed just one more win in eight league matches since falling seven points off the pace of Real Madrid.
They are, however, win the Supercopa de Espana earlier this monthdefeating Madrid for the second time this season in the final in Saudi Arabia, scoring four times in the first half alone.
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