Barcelona coach Hansi Flick admitted that the return of teenage star Lamine Yamal helped the side in their 5-1 dismantling of Mallorca.
The 17-year-old has been on the sidelines for four weeks due to an ankle issue as the table-topping Catalan giants could only pick up one point from a possible nine in three league games, providing an opening for the chasing pack to capitalise, with Real Madrid closing the gap to just one point.
The dominant performance on Tuesday finally brought an end to their three-game winless run and Flick understood the result was aided by the return of Yamal.
“Yamal was very important for us, he always generates positive things for the team,” Flick said to Movistar Plus.
“He could have scored one or two goals against them, he played very well.
“Of course, I am happy with the team performance.
“In the first half, we had a lot of chances and we scored, but they equalised in a counter-attack but we kept going. The entire team is happy with how things went tonight.”
Flick opted not to rely on his star striker Robert Lewandowski to help the team against Mallorca.
The Polish striker, who is the leading scorer in LaLiga with 15 goals, was given a rest after starting all 20 of Barcelona’s previous games across all competitions.
Lewandowski’s replacement Ferran Torres capitalised on some sloppy defending by Mallorca to hand the visitors an early lead with a clever strike.
“Lewandowski needed to rest, we had to look after him.
“And Ferran [Torres] had a very good game and scored the first goal, it’s very important for him too. Whenever we need him, he’s always there. Today we didn’t need to play Lewandowski,” Flick added.
Barca currently sit at the summit of the standings on 37 points, four above second-placed Real Madrid who have one game in hand.
