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Flick: La Liga Title More Important Than Champions League Victory

Barcelona coach Hans Flick said he places winning the Spanish La Liga title as his top priority, ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League match against Atalanta, with the Spanish team already securing qualification to the Round of 16.

Barcelona, who have won all but one of their matches in the competition so far, are second in the standings with 18 points, three behind leaders Liverpool, who will face PSV Eindhoven, ranked 19th, in the final round.

Regardless of the result against Atalanta, the defending Europa League champions, Barcelona’s coach has already sealed his team’s qualification for the next stage, allowing him to focus on narrowing the seven-point gap to La Liga leaders Real Madrid.

The German coach said in a press conference on Tuesday: “For me, La Liga is the most important thing we can win, and we can aim for it throughout the season. Clearly, there are other competitions, such as the Super Cup, Copa del Rey, or the Champions League, which is the hardest to win because there are big teams competing for it. We want to finish the group stage in second place because that will put us in a good position for the next stages of the competition.”

Atalanta are in seventh place with 14 points in the European competition.

Flick added: “It’s always tough to play against Italian teams because they defend so well. Atalanta closely monitors the opponents’ players across the field. You’re always under pressure when building attacks, and when they get the ball, they can counter-attack quickly. They always play with one touch, so we need to be prepared for that.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Barcelona announced that defender Andreas Christensen will be sidelined for three weeks due to a calf injury he sustained during Monday’s training.

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