Sports
Flick warns against lapses in concentration as Barca look to bounce back
Hansi Flick is hoping for a winning homecoming as Barcelona play at Camp Nou for the first time in 2026, though he wants his side to stay focused for the full 90 minutes.
Sunday’s contest against Real Oviedo will be Barcelona’s first game at home since the turn of the year.
The Blaugrana head into it having surrendered first place in LaLiga to Real Madrid, who beat Villarreal 2-0 on Saturday.
In both their 2-1 defeat to Real Sociedad in LaLiga and their 4-2 win over Slavia Praha in the Champions League, Flick’s side shipped the opening goal – an issue he acknowledges as a pressing concern.
“We’re back home and we want to win,” Flick said.
“Lately, the opposition have always scored first, and we want to avoid that. We’ve made some mistakes, and that’s why the goals have come. Perhaps we need to be more focused, for the full 90 minutes.
“Teams defend with everything they’ve got against us. Defending is more complicated. We have to be prepared. We’ve talked about it, and we have to do it.”
Flick also defended his side’s midweek performance against Slavia, with Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, and Robert Lewandowski netting to seal victory.
“We don’t have much time to train [set pieces], but we’ve talked about it. In Prague, it was different. I don’t want to make excuses, but it was very cold and they had very tall players,” he added.
“It’s important to be well-positioned, and we’ve discussed it. At Barca, we don’t usually have tall players, but they’ve always been able to manage it.”
Hansi Flick: ““We’ve made some mistakes and that’s why we’ve conceded goals. We have to stay more focused throughout the full 90 minutes. We’ve talked about it and we’ll do it.” pic.twitter.com/T1xdLCzh4x
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 24, 2026
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Barcelona – Lamine Yamal
Yamal leads the assist charts in LaLiga this season, having provided eight.
Only Michael Olise and Mohamed Salah have registered more assists than Yamal’s 21 across the five big European leagues since the start of the 2024-25 campaign.
Real Oviedo – Federico Vinas
Federico Vinas has scored in his last two LaLiga matches for Real Oviedo (one goal against Alaves and one against Osasuna).
He could become just the third player to score in three consecutive games in the competition for the Asturian side this century, after Jaime and Oli both did so back in 2001.
MATCH PREDICTION: BARCELONA WIN
Barcelona have won seven of their last nine home games against Oviedo in LaLiga (D1 L1), losing the most recent one 0-1 in May 2001. They have never lost consecutive home meetings against the Asturian side in the history of LaLiga.
The Blaugrana will be relishing a return to the Camp Nou, having won each of their last nine home games in LaLiga. The last time they recorded 10 or more home wins in the competition under the same manager was in December 2019 with Ernesto Valverde (W14).
After picking up a 3-1 victory against Oviedo in the reverse fixture at the Carlos Tartiere in September, Barca could do the double over them for the first time since 1995-96.
Oviedo, though, have won four of their last nine matches against Barcelona in LaLiga (L5) – the same number of victories they managed in their previous 24 encounters with the Blaugrana in the competition (W4 D6 L14).
Guillermo Almada’s side, however, are winless in their last 13 league matches (D7 L6) and have collected only 13 points from 20 games this season (W2 D7 L11).
The last 11 teams to have managed 13 or fewer points at this stage of a LaLiga season have been relegated, with Real Zaragoza in 2011-12 (12 points, W2 D6 L12, 16th at the end) being the last such side to avoid the drop.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Barcelona – 81.6%
Draw – 11.1%
Real Oviedo – 7.3%
