Catalans seek to complete Flick vindication

BARRING a collapse at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, Hansi Flick has Barcelona on course for the Uefa Champions League semi-finals and a return to Europe's elite after a turbulent decade in Catalonia.

- 

A semi-final place — where Barcelona would likely be favourites to reach the final - would mark the high point so far for the Catalan giants in the post-Lionel Messi era. Four points clear of Real Madrid in La Liga with seven games remaining, and also set to face Los Blancos in the Copa del Rey final, Barcelona are enjoying their best season since Messi's departure.

Since winning it all in Berlin in 2015, Barcelona have reached the Champions League semi-finals only once — in the 2018/19 campaign — though it is a tie they would rather forget. In that infamous clash, Barcelona became a footnote in Liverpool's stunning come-back, squandering a 3-0 first-leg lead with a 4-0 defeat at Anfield.

The following season, they were humbled 8-2 by a Flick-coached Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. Barcelona did not return to the quarter-finals until 2023/24, when a 3-2 first-leg away win over Paris Saint-Germain was overturned in a 4-1 defeat at home.