Barcelona coach Hansi Flick expressed his understanding of Lamine Yamal’s anger at being substituted in the final minutes of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Flick substituted Yamal in the 88th minute, and the 18-year-old clearly showed his displeasure at being taken off, as he had hoped to play until the final whistle of the match, which Barça won 2-1.
In the post-match press conference, Flick jokingly remarked about Yamal’s reaction, “Next time he’ll be on the bench.”
He added, “There’s no problem. I understand what Yamal did because I was a player like him. We took him off in the last five minutes, but every player wants to play the full 90 minutes.”
He concluded, “Lamine was a little frustrated by the substitution, but he got a yellow card, and we needed to energize him.”
With this victory, Barcelona reached 10 points in the Champions League, placing them 14th in the group with only two matches remaining in the league.
Barcelona are preparing for an important match against Osasuna next Saturday in the Spanish League, which the Catalans lead by 4 points over Real Madrid.
