Barcelona manager Flick praises Lewandowski after productive start in LaLiga

Hansi Flick praised goalscorer Robert Lewandowski after the striker scored the winning goal in Barcelona’s 2-1 victory over Athletic Club at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

Lewandowski celebrated his 36th birthday this week by following up his double against Valencia last week with his third goal in two LaLiga games.

Flick, who worked with Lewandowski at Bayern Munich, has been particularly impressed with his fitness and his play without the ball.

“I know him, I have worked with him and he is 100% fit, you can see that,” the German coach said at a press conference.

“He’s great against the ball. He puts pressure on the team up front, which means we always receive the ball very high. That’s good for our game.

“Robert is an absolute professional player, who works hard on his condition. He has this body, it does not fit his age.

“For me, if he is fit, if he is positive, it helps us a lot. He knows how to score and also when he is under pressure.”

Barça took the lead through Lamine Yamal, but Athletic equalised just before half-time through a penalty from Oihan Sancet.

Lewandowski hit the crossbar twice and saw another shot superbly saved by Álex Padilla before scoring the winning goal in the 75th minute.

“We needed this second goal and Robert had the chance and he took it,” added Flick.

“This is his job and he has been doing a great job for years, not just this year.

“Of course he could have scored one or two goals, especially in the first half, but I’ll have to look at that again. It’s just the impression you get on the bench.

“But in the end, this is a goalgetter, a striker who scores goals. The second goal for us was the winner, three points, perfect.”

Lewandowski’s goal gave Flick a perfect start to the match as the Barça coach took six points from two games.

“I think it’s always good to improve,” Flick said of his team’s start to the season.

“I told the team that every game is a step forward, so we want to do better, that’s what we’re doing.

“We analyze the game and see where we can do better for the next game.”

Barça’s start is all the more impressive because of the young players making up the team: Yamal, Pau Cubarsí and Marc Bernal are all still 17 years old.

Bernal made his debut against Valencia as a starter in midfield and retained his starting place against Athletic.

“It has nothing to do with age, it has to do with performance,” Flick said of the young midfielder.

“He’s doing well, in the preparation we could say that he has something we need. Today he’s doing great too and it wasn’t easy against Athletic, they have a good idea of ​​how they want to play football.

“It was really important that we had a number 6 who focused on defence and that’s exactly what he did.”