After their defeat to Monaco in the opening round of the competition, FC Barcelona turned things around in the UEFA Champions League with a 5-0 win over the Swiss side BSC Young Boys.
Speaking after the game, Fick made it clear that this result was achieved only because of the collective performance of the team, and not because of individual excellence. However, the very good performances put in by several Barcelona players on the night can still not be ignored.
One such player who stood out in this game was the center-back Inigo Martinez. The €5m-rated Spaniard scored one of the goals, his first one in a Barcelona shirt, and also provided an assist.
As Mundo Deportivo has reported, he also spoke to the media after this game, and shared his feelings after having scored the goal in this game:
“I hadn’t been able to score for a while, and I had even forgotten how to celebrate. I’m happy about the goal, but most importantly, about the three points, because we absolutely had to win after the defeat against Monaco.”
The defender was also quite happy with the overall performance of his team:
“We’re all happy with the work, both in defense and attack. We were great, except in the last few minutes when they created some chances, but overall, the collective effort was very good.”
The defender had to leave the pitch in the last minutes of the game and revealed the reason for this substitution: “I could have continued, but I’ve been dealing with this strain for a while, so we decided to make the substitution.”
Martinez was also fully in line with the methods that Flick has implemented in this team, and wanted to keep going with this style of play:
“Since the coach arrived, the idea has worked well. We’ve felt comfortable with this style of play and the way we press. We need to keep going, let this not stop, and time will tell how far we can go.”
Since Flick has taken charge of this Barcelona team, Martinez has been an important component of the defense and the new leader of the backline. He has performed at a very high level this season, and hopefully, he will continue to put in such performances in future matches to ensure Barcelona do not miss the likes of Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen too much.