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<\/p>\nBarcelona manager Hansi Flick says a “change of atmosphere” has done Marcus Rashford good following his loan move from Manchester United.<\/p>\n
The England forward has recovered from the flu that kept him out of Saturday’s 4-0 LaLiga win over Athletic Bilbao and is available for tonight’s meeting with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n
Four of his six Barca goals so far have come in the Champions League, including two on the team\u2019s previous visit to England to face Newcastle in September, and the move to the Nou Camp has gone some of the way towards resurrecting a career that had stalled at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m happy to have him in the team, playing for Barca,” said Flick. “I\u2019ve followed him throughout his whole career and I\u2019ve always been impressed by his quality and what he can do in the box, and he\u2019s showing that in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
“That change for him, new football, in Barcelona, with good weather. For me it\u2019s incredible to see how he\u2019s always smiling. That\u2019s the atmosphere we have and it\u2019s very good for him.”<\/p>\n
Barca and Chelsea sit level on seven points after four matches in this season\u2019s competition, with both sides requiring a win in West London if they are realistically to keep alive hopes of achieving direct passage to the last-16.<\/p>\n
As well as being able to call on Rashford, Flick\u2019s task will be aided by the return from injury of Raphinha, who made his first appearance in almost two months as a substitute in Saturday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n
The Brazil international suffered a series of setbacks during his recovery from a groin problem which had pushed back his return date, with reports in Spain suggesting players have been unhappy with with the way injuries have been handled by Barca medical staff.<\/p>\n
However, the forward is in contention to feature in the club\u2019s first game away to Chelsea since 2018.<\/p>\n
“Step by step with Raphinha,” said Flick. “For me, the important thing is that he\u2019s back. About the minutes and how much he will play, we\u2019ll decide.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s had the same injury twice and that\u2019s not good at this stage, so we\u2019ll be careful.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m very happy that he returned because as soon as he played on Saturday, we saw the difference. The dynamism, he created spaces and I\u2019m very happy to have him.”<\/p>\n
Barca triumphed 4-1 on aggregate when the teams last met in the Champions League last-16 nearly eight years ago.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi\u2019s equaliser earned the visitors a 1-1 draw in the first leg in London before scoring twice more in a 3-0 second-leg win.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cole Palmer (above) is set to miss tonight’s game and the clash with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, head coach Enzo Maresca has revealed.<\/p>\n
The England forward fractured a toe in an accident at home last week, further delaying his return from the groin injury that has kept him out since September.<\/p>\n
It could not have come at a worse moment, with the Blues facing a stern test of their credentials against the five-time Champions League winners and current Premier League leaders.<\/p>\n
Palmer last played during the 2-1 defeat away against Manchester United more than two months ago and has missed 12 club matches as well as the last two international windows, although Chelsea have coped well in the absence of last year’s top scorer.<\/p>\n
“We don\u2019t know when (Palmer will be back), but for sure it will be soon,” said Maresca. “He\u2019s already on the pitch. He\u2019s already touching the ball and the feeling is good.<\/p>\n
“We are here for tomorrow\u2019s game then after that we\u2019ll start to think about Arsenal.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether Palmer could play against the Gunners on Sunday, Maresca said: “I don\u2019t think so at the moment.”<\/p>\n
Chelsea have won six of their last seven in the league to emerge as the nearest challengers to Mikel Arteta\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
In Europe, however, results have been sketchier, with the draw away to Qarabag earlier in November having hampered their ambitions of finishing in the top eight and bypassing February\u2019s play-off.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a big week, but at the end of the week we have Leeds away, Bournemouth away, so that is another big week,” said Maresca. “It\u2019s always a big week.”<\/p>\n
Maresca has been strongly moulded in his coaching outlook by former mentor Pep Guardiola, whose Barca team were twice champions of Europe during his time in charge at the Nou Camp between 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n
The football played by Guardiola\u2019s side during that period has arguably seen its influence begin to wane in recent seasons after a more than a decade in which teams all over Europe attempted to emulate their possession-based style.<\/p>\n
“I decided to be a manager because of Pep\u2019s Barcelona,” said Maresca. “Any team can decide the way they want to play. I chose mine years ago and it\u2019s the way I like to watch my team play.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t think anyone can be compared to that Barca and to Pep. They changed football in Spain where every club was trying to play in that way.<\/p>\n
“He came here and many teams tried to do something similar and also the England national team. No one can be compared to Pep because in the last 25 years he changed football.”<\/p>\n
Maresca was asked about comparisons between Barca star Lamine Yamal and Chelsea\u2019s own 18-year-old, Brazilian winger Estevao Willian.<\/p>\n
“The most important thing for him is to enjoy his football, be happy, not think abut being better than this or that player, just be better than himself day by day,” he said.<\/p>\n
Watch Liverpool v PSV in the Champions League on Wednesday from 7.45pm on RT\u00c92 and the RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on the RT\u00c9 News App and on rte.ie\/sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona manager Hansi Flick says a “change of atmosphere” has done Marcus Rashford good following his loan move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-158717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}