Flick praises defence after Aston Villa win: 'The best thing was not conceding'

Hansi Flick said the most impressive aspect of Barcelona's 3-0 Champions League win over Aston Villa was his defence keeping a clean sheet after a long wait.

Barcelona returned to winning ways at Camp Nou on Tuesday, with Lamine Yamal's 7th-minute goal laying the foundation for victory. Pouncing on a risky pass from João Gomes in front of his own goal, Yamal sent the ball into the corner for a record-breaking strike. The 19-year-old reached 14 Champions League goals, taking the title of the competition's highest-scoring young player in its history from Kylian Mbappé (13).

Captain Raphinha sealed the win with two goals within 12 minutes in the second half, but Flick reserved his main praise for the back line. Barcelona kept their first Champions League clean sheet since the 4-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in April 2025, ending an 18-match run of conceding. The Catalan giants have also won 11 of their last 13 home matches against English clubs in the competition (2 draws).

Barça held Unai Emery's side to just 0.72 expected goals (xG) from nine shots, forcing goalkeeper Joan García into only one save.

"The best thing about the match? Not conceding. I'm very happy that we defended well against such a dangerous attack as Aston Villa's. Of course, that was very important. We defended well against a great team, and we were pleased with what we saw defensively. Everyone gave their maximum to finish the game without conceding, and we scored our goals too. We're happy," Flick said after the match.

Barcelona have failed to score in only one of their last 20 home Champions League matches (15 wins, 2 draws, 3 defeats), finding the net 65 times in those games (3.3 goals per match). The Blaugrana also created at least five big chances in three consecutive Champions League matches for the first time since December 2020.

The result matched Aston Villa's heaviest defeat in the history of European competition (1-4 against Royal Antwerp in September 1975 and 0-3 against Inter in November 1990). Villa, who fell behind through Gomes' error, are the Premier League side with the most individual errors leading to goals in all competitions this season (7 errors).

On the pressing that led to Yamal's goal, Flick said: "This is exactly the style of football we want to play. We press high to force mistakes. At that moment we were in the right position, we pressed well, they made a mistake and we took advantage of it."

Explaining his half-time decision to replace Rodri with Marc Bernal, Flick said the Spaniard had suffered a minor injury: "We took him off at half-time because he felt some muscle discomfort. We'll have to wait for the tests to clarify his condition."