Barcelona coach Hansi Flick expressed his extreme happiness with Barça’s historic 5-4 victory over Benfica, indicating that he refuses to blame Szczesny for his mistakes in the match.
The Polish goalkeeper had made a disastrous mistake in the second goal after colliding with Alejandro Balde and leaving the goal empty, then caused a penalty kick from which Benfica’s third goal came.
Regarding this, Flick commented by saying, “He made mistakes in the first half, but who is the player who does not make mistakes?”.
He also added, “All the players made mistakes in the first half, but I liked what I saw in the second half, he made important saves that contributed to our victory.”
As for his decision to include Szczesny instead of Iñaki Pena, he responded by saying, “We win together and we lose together, we analyze everything together, Iñaki Pena did a good job, there is nothing against him, what I did is a team decision.”
Regarding the comeback, Flick said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, it’s unbelievable, it was a crazy game, and the most positive thing was the mentality we played with.”
He concluded, “This is football, and that’s why we love it.”
It is worth noting that Barcelona’s victory over Benfica officially guaranteed them direct qualification to the round of 16 of the Champions League regardless of the result of the Atalanta match next week at the end of the league stage.
