Barcelona star Lamine Yamal is already a star at the age of just 17, having won the Euros and become arguably the most talented player in one of Spain’s behemoths already. That much was evident when he was taken off in stoppage time against Atalanta on Wednesday night, with the score deadlocked at 2-2.
The Blaugrana were pushing for the winner in their final Champions League group phase game, knowing that it would secure them top spot ahead of Liverpool. Yet in stoppage time, Flick decided to put Pau Victor on in place of his star forward. The teenager, walking along the sideline to see Flick, did not look happy about it.
Rostro de pocos amigos de Lamine y charla de Flick.
La imagen del cambio del crack azulgrana. #LaCasaDelFútbol #UCL pic.twitter.com/OxZ2XdM0NG
— Fútbol en Movistar Plus+ (@MovistarFutbol) January 29, 2025
However after the match, he cleared up the incident, as quoted by Cadena SER.
“We all want to play. Obviously, I want to play as many minutes as I can, but so do my teammates who are on the bench. [Flick told me] To be calm, that it was a good game and now to focus on La Liga.”
Hansi Flick: “I’m very happy with the second place. It’s a great success. We had a difficult game today. We could have defended better.”
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) January 29, 2025
His manager was also asked about Lamine Yamal’s less than pleased expression at the end of the game.
“He is disappointed, but it was at the end that I wanted to change something and I would say that in a few minutes we could have won, but it was 2-2 and I am happy too.”
Meanwhile vice-captain Raphinha empathised with his teammate, explaining to Diario AS that he understood where he was coming from.
“I understand it very well. He is a spectacular player, it is understandable that he gets angry. I understand his anger at not finishing the game because it has happened to me many times. But he did very well, he helped the team and scored a goal. I try to help him and I can say that I am very happy with his performance today and throughout the season.”
It is easy to forget that Lamine Yamal is still incredibly young due to how natural he looks on the pitch, on Wednesday night shrugging off Sead Kolasinac to score his 10th goal of the season. So far he has accumulated 2,240 minutes across 28 games. Of those appearances, 25 have been starts and he has 22 goal contributions. He has also missed 5 games through injury.
/https%3A%2F%2Fsportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F08%2Fimago1065257968-1-68a33212aec73966060882.jpg?w=360&resize=360,180&ssl=1 "Mikel’s ‘missing piece’: Arsenal lining up £69m offer for")
