Barcelona have a mountain to climb.
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick urged his side to “make the impossible possible” as they face the task of turning around their Copa del Rey semi-final tie with Atletico Madrid.
The Blaugrana trail 4-0 from the first leg at the Metrpolitano, leaving them with a mountain to climb at Camp Nou.
Barca have, over the course of their illustrious history, become synonymous with glorious comebacks.
However, beyond their remarkable Champions League recovery against Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 in 2017, there is no precedent for Barca coming back from a 4-0 first-leg deficit in a knockout tie to progress.
Flick eyes impossible Barcelona comeback
On that occasion, Barca won 6-1 on an incredible night at Camp Nou to reach the quarter-finals in a game known as ‘La Remontada’.
No player who featured in the matchday squad that night remains in the Barca squad, with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen on loan at Girona, but Flick wants his group of exceptional talents to believe they can overcome the odds.
“Everyone knows what’s coming up tomorrow,” Flick told his pre-match press conference. “We’re four goals down and we have to make the impossible possible. That’s our objective.
“We know it won’t be easy, but we won’t give up. It’s important to keep a clean sheet and we have to believe we can do it.”
Barca should be full of confidence heading into the second leg, having thrashed Villarreal 4-1 in LaLiga on Saturday thanks to a historic hat-trick from Lamine Yamal.
“It’s always better to think about the first goal first. We have to be smart,” Flick added. “We’ll be hungry to get it, and I want to see that hunger. We saw a completely different team in the last match, a lot of intensity in the game. We have to play together, as a team. That’s the key.”
“We always want to play our style. We’ve thought about everything that could happen and give us an advantage.
“We’ve played very well, also against Villarreal, an excellent opponent. But we have to play as a unit, with and without the ball. We have to pressure them and win the one-on-one duels. Especially to avoid losing possession against teams that make those kinds of transitions.”
Barca do at least have history of turnarounds against Atletico in the Copa del Rey at Camp Nou. The 1996-97 team famously fought back when, after drawing the first leg 2-2, they fell 3-0 and 4-2 behind in the second leg of a quarter-final tie with the Rojiblancos. Bobby Robson’s star-studded Barca scored three goals in the final 23 minutes of normal time to progress 5-4 (7-6 on aggregate) and eventually win the competition.
Flick, though, is not interested in history as his side aim to pull off what would be an even more remarkable comeback.
“I don’t think about the past or the future,” Flick added.
“The most important thing is tomorrow. Yes, we know the history, but our job is to do well tomorrow. We didn’t do well in the last match, and we want to see our best version, and we want to see everyone’s support.”