Barcelona's failure in big matches raises questions

The Catalan giants played entertaining attacking football this season and won their first 11 matches in all competitions, but when the level of competition rose, the picture changed completely.

Barcelona lost to Paris Saint-Germain, the European champions for the last two years, 2-4 in the French capital on Tuesday in the third round of the prestigious continental competition, in a match that showed they are still far from the level of their compatriot Luis Enrique's team.

The suffering was compounded after the painful 1-2 home defeat to Real Madrid in the domestic league, where the fragility of their defensive line was exposed once again.

A draw would have been an acceptable result and would have maintained their six-point lead over Real Madrid in the league, but they left vast spaces that "Los Blancos" exploited in the final minutes.

Three minutes before the end, substitute French midfielder Eduardo Camavinga broke toward the goal before passing the ball to his compatriot Kylian Mbappé, who scored his 100th goal in a Real Madrid shirt and his second in the match, giving his team the win.

Flick told reporters, "In the end, and in very big matches, small details matter; they are what decide matches and determine their direction, and today they were not in our favor."

He added, vowing to improve, "We know what we need to improve. We talk about it in every training session. We will do it, and I am not worried about this matter."

He continued, "Losing is also part of football. But we suffered two defeats this week, and that is too much."

However, this rhetoric is not new, as the German coach has previously repeated the same ideas during his time with the team.

After Barcelona's exit against Italy's Inter in the Champions League semi-finals in May 2025, Flick said, "We are a young team and we must mature."

He added at the time, "We are working on that, and we must improve defensively and in other aspects as well."

Lack of physical "freshness"

Despite spending large sums this summer to sign England's Anthony Gordon, Rodri Hernández, and others, and attempting to sign Argentine international striker Julián Álvarez from Atlético Madrid, Barcelona did not sign a new center-back.

Instead, Flick continued to rely on Gerard Martín, who moved from the left-back position to center-back, alongside Pau Cubarsí.

Martín performed relatively well given his technical limitations and position change, but he looked helpless against the best strikers in the world.

His poor clearance led to Real Madrid's first goal when it hit the rushing Mbappé and found the net of goalkeeper Joan García.

To his credit, Martín later succeeded in stopping English international midfielder Jude Bellingham and Mbappé in a two-on-one attacking situation early in the second half, which revealed a broader structural problem that Barcelona is suffering from.

The high defensive line adopted by the team becomes easy to penetrate when collective pressing is not executed perfectly and with the required energy.

Flick believed that Barcelona lacked physical "freshness" against Real Madrid after a congested schedule of matches, even though his team had an extra day of rest compared to their opponent following the midweek matches, and the coach waited until the final minutes to bring on his compatriot Karim Adeyemi and Brazilian Gabriel Jesus.

Barcelona is also suffering from problems due to injuries in the back line, as Eric García, Frenchman Jules Koundé, and Dane Andreas Christensen were absent from the Clásico, in addition to midfielder Dani Olmo.

Flick said, "Perhaps this is the most important point, the injuries we are suffering from."

Despite this, Barcelona still maintains a three-point lead over third-placed Real Madrid in the title race (27 to 24).

The team has the ability to achieve a new winning streak, but the coming weeks will constitute other important tests.

On November 3rd, Barcelona will host English side Aston Villa, led by Spanish coach Unai Emery, in the Champions League, before visiting Atlético Madrid on the 8th. A month later, they will host Manchester City at the "Camp Nou" stadium.

Flick has been promising improvement in these types of matches for more than two years, and perhaps now is the time to translate those promises into reality inside the rectangular pitch.