Head coach Hansi Flick had to answer whether his team’s 1-2 defeat against AS Monaco in the Champions League was the “worst game” of the season so far.

Barca entered their 2024/2025 UCL debut with five wins from five La Liga games. However, at the Louis Stadium II on Wednesday night, a poor pass from Marc-Andre ter Stegen from close range resulted in Eric Garcia being shown a red card as the last man to commit a foul, meaning the Catalans were down to 10 men on the defensive for over 80 minutes.

Lamine Yamal equalised with his first European goal after Maghnes Akliouche had opened the scoring for the hosts after half an hour, but George Ilenikhena scored the winner with around 20 minutes to go to secure their second victory over Barca in two months, including their 3-0 defeat to the Blaugrana in August.

In his post-match press conference, however, Flick refused to directly confirm that this week’s defeat was the worst game of his tenure and of the season so far.

“If you have five wins and then lose, you can say that’s the worst – yes. We didn’t start badly. In some phases we weren’t good in the combinations. But I insist that I saw positive things and we have to concentrate on La Liga now,” said Flick.

When asked if he was worried that the first defeat of his tenure came on the continent, Flick stressed that everything had changed after the red card and that his team was “strong enough to play in the Champions League”.

“There are still seven games left and we will achieve our goals,” he vowed.

“We will be stronger and there are still seven games to play,” Flick said elsewhere. “We have to regenerate our strength in the next few games. We have games every three days, but we already know what it will be.”

With an away game at Villarreal next on Sunday, which is essentially a battle for first and fourth place, Flick confirmed that he is considering giving his 17-year-old sons Lamine and Pau Cubarsi a rest at El Madrigal.