{"id":605320,"date":"2026-04-14T02:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605320\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:13:09","slug":"its-not-finished-lamine-yamal-pledges-barcelona-will-fight-to-the-end-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605320\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s not finished\u2019: Lamine Yamal pledges Barcelona will fight to the end | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

No pressure, kid. Lamine Yamal took the stage here and, he hoped, not for the last time. The 18-year-old, wearing glasses, sat in the press conference room at the Metropolitano where he said he would take inspiration from the basketball legend LeBron James and from Neymar on Wednesday night. He insisted that he welcomes the weight of expectation that has been loaded upon him from the beginning as he tries to lead Barcelona back from a 2-0 first-leg defeat against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and into the semi-finals of the Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Barcelona<\/a> were knocked out by Inter in last season\u2019s semi-finals, Lamine Yamal promised that he would take them back. A year on, scorer of five goals and provider of four assists in Europe, described by Hansi Flick as \u201cthe best in the world one on one\u201d, he is their great hope as they seek to return and try again, his appearance in front of the media a prelude to him leading on the pitch. \u201cEver since I was little I have had the fortune to have to take on more responsibility than I should,\u201d the teenager said. \u201cI am used to it. All I think about is enjoying it, not taking it as a problem but a virtue. I\u2019m grateful for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flick said that it wouldn\u2019t take a miracle for Barcelona to come back from the defeat by Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> and progress, just a good performance. But a bit of inspiration is no bad thing, and Lamine Yamal had sought it from James, posting an image on Instagram of the star who led Cleveland Cavaliers in one of the greatest comebacks in history, overturning a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA title in 2016. He spoke, too, of his hero, Neymar, who had been at the heart of Barcelona\u2019s incredible comeback against Paris Saint-Germain the following year, winning the second leg 6-1 after a 4-0 loss in the first leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeBron is one of the role models\u00a0who can inspire me for the game tomorrow, I will think about how he did it. I will try to do what he did,\u201d Lamine Yamal said. \u201cI have seen [the 6-1] lots of times. Neymar marked my childhood, he is my hero. I will always be inspired by him. He\u2019s a player you would pay for a ticket to go and see. I thank\u00a0him for everything he gives to football \u2013 and hopefully he can be at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Hansi Flick (right) feels his team will have to be \u2018very connected\u2019 to progress to the semi-finals. Photograph: Quique Garc\u00eda\/EPA<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of desire to get through and we are Barcelona. At the start of the season when I had groin problems, I wanted these moments to come. These are the moments when you see real players. I am really looking forward to it. This is the most important competition. I have always dreamed of scoring goals in the Champions League and I have faith.\u00a0I think I can make the difference. Let\u2019s see if [Diego] Simeone does me a favour and goes one-on-one on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise that if we get knocked\u00a0out it will be fighting to the end. We will give everything for this badge. A lot of us are from [the academy]. We\u2019re a young team, real Bar\u00e7a fans. We all love Barcelona and we will fight to the end. It will be 90 minutes, or more. We\u2019re convinced that it\u2019s not finished: that\u2019s why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only one team has ever overcome a 2-0 defeat at home to go through in the history of the Champions League but a Barcelona player was involved: Marcus Rashford scored the winner as Manchester United knocked out PSG in the round of 16 in March 2019. In 20 knockout stage games at the Metropolitano and their former home at the Vicente Calder\u00f3n, meanwhile, Atl\u00e9tico have never lost.<\/p>\n

But Flick said: \u201cI am not worried about this because it is our style. I know we can defend better but it is about the [whole] team, not just about the last line, the defenders. We have to be very connected. And we are able to score goals. I think Lamine performed really good in the last [few] games and I am happy with him. What I say to him is that he has to make these things [happen]. At the moment he is the best in the world one-on-one. We have to help him. We have to give him the option to pass. This is important. We have to do this tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible, it is possible: why\u00a0not?. I know we play a fantastic Atl\u00e9tico. We need a strong and stable defence but we also have to be brave on offence. We have to attack, we have to press, maybe take every chance. When you see the last game maybe that was the difference between them and us. Maybe tomorrow is totally different and I will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No pressure, kid. Lamine Yamal took the stage here and, he hoped, not for the last time. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-605320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}