Atlético Madrid are not Aston Villa: will Flick play with fire again against Simeone in the La Liga clash?
The domestic lead under threat
Barcelona beat Aston Villa 3-0 on Tuesday to get back to winning ways in the Champions League.
Played at the Camp Nou in the fourth round of the league phase, the win took Barca up to nine points and into second place.
Barca had gone down 4-2 to Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round. This time they bounced back, a third victory lifting their tally to nine points.
Flick deploys the high-pressing weapon
German coach Hansi Flick leaned on a high press against Aston Villa from the very first whistle.
At the heart of it were the front four of Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, Gordon and Fermin Lopez, with Pedri and Rodri joining the hunt too.
That weapon paid off handsomely in the opening minutes. A glaring error in the Villa defence let Lamine Yamal in to score the first.
The mistakes kept coming after that, though they eased in the second half once Unai Emery tried to steady his side.
All match long, Barca's pressing of Villa high up the pitch bore fruit. Chance after chance fell their way as they won the ball back by closing down space, or forced the opponent to hoof it clear for fear of losing possession in dangerous areas.
The other side of Flick's plan
For all its success going forward, Flick's plan handed Barca major defensive problems and left them open to seriously dangerous attacks.
In the first half especially, the English side carved out four real chances. Villa punished the advancing Barca press with counter-attacks that reached Joan Garcia's goal.
Garcia's brilliance was the difference. Without it, the scoreline would have looked very different, and SofaScore handed him a rating of 8 out of 10 for his work.
Villa's chances dropped off in the second half but still carried a threat, and the post even denied them a certain goal.
Despite those dangerous attacks, Garcia kept a clean sheet.
It was the first time Barca had kept Champions League opponents out in 18 matches.
An alarm bell before the Atletico Madrid clash
A fiery assignment awaits on Sunday, when Barca visit Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano in LaLiga.
Barca sit top on 30 points, Atletico right behind on 28, Real Madrid third on 27.
A win would keep Barca in top spot. Lose, and they drop below Atletico and could even finish the round level with Real Madrid.
The Villa game was a strongly worded warning to Flick. Play the same way at Atletico and he risks throwing away three points.
Quick, lightning counter-attacks sit at the heart of Diego Simeone's philosophy at Atletico Madrid.
The Argentine may drop the plan in some matches, but he always returns to it for the big ones, shoring up his defence and hunting for the net.
Atletico boast plenty of players who can threaten Barca's goal on the break.
Simeone is expected to call on the likes of Giuliano Simeone, Julian Alvarez, Marcos Llorente, Alejandro Baena, Pablo Barrios and Sorloth, with Lookman and Kang-in Lee also in the squad.
Most of them have blistering pace and real quality. That will put Barcelona in a bind if the Rojiblancos get the chance to counter, as Villa did tonight.
So will Flick tweak his approach at Atletico, or gamble on the same plan in the big LaLiga clash?
