{"id":580986,"date":"2026-04-13T04:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T04:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:36:09","slug":"hansi-flick-faces-a-major-selection-dilemma-ahead-of-atletico-madrid-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580986\/","title":{"rendered":"Hansi Flick faces a major selection dilemma ahead of Atletico Madrid clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona head into Tuesday\u2019s second leg against Atletico Madrid with renewed optimism, and much of that stems from an unexpected source.<\/p>\n<p>Hansi Flick had largely settled on his attacking setup heading into the Metropolitano, but Ferran Torres may have just complicated those plans in the best way possible.<\/p>\n<p>Torres forces his way into contention<\/p>\n<p>The Valencian forward delivered a superb display against Espanyol in the derby, netting twice in the first half to end a 14-game scoring drought that had stretched back to January. <\/p>\n<p>The goals lifted his tally for the season to 18, making him the third-highest scorer in the squad behind Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/ferran-torres-pide-paso-metropolitano-129009752\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Diario SPORT<\/a>, Flick may now have a genuine selection headache ahead of the second leg, with Torres pushing hard for a starting berth at the Metropolitano.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fc-barcelona-v-rcd-espanyol-de-barcelona-laliga-ea-sports-6-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Ferran Torres, Barcelona star\" class=\"wp-image-196766\"  \/>Ferran Torres is pushing for a start vs Atletico Madrid. (Photo by Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Robert Lewandowski had been the expected starter, having been rested entirely against Espanyol with Tuesday\u2019s clash in mind. The Polish striker scored at the Metropolitano in La Liga just last week and remains a strong option for Flick.<\/p>\n<p>However, Torres\u2019 performance will be difficult to ignore. The forward also has a strong personal record against Atletico Madrid, having scored twice in a famous 2-4 comeback victory at the Metropolitano last season, as well as netting the decisive goal in the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg that sent Barcelona to the final.<\/p>\n<p>After the full-time whistle on Saturday, Torres did not hold back when addressing his critics. \u201cThere is always external noise with me, always in the bad more than in the good,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelona-striker-fires-back-at-critics-after-espanyol-brace-theres-always-noise-around-me-it-annoys-them\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">he said<\/a>, clearly motivated by the doubts that had surrounded him in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Flick now has a welcome problem on his hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona head into Tuesday\u2019s second leg against Atletico Madrid with renewed optimism, and much of that stems from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[7867,418,49042,116892,106171,112872,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-580986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-atletico-madrid","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-barcelona-news","11":"tag-ferran-torres","12":"tag-hansi-flick","13":"tag-robert-lewandowski","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}