January is the traditional time for the Super Cup Spainwhich has been played in Saudi Arabia for several years. In the first semi-final, FC Barcelona faced Athletic Bilbao. Barca won 2-0 thanks to goals from Gavi and Lamine Yamala – both at the beginning of the first and second half.
Flick got a question about Szczęsny and blurted it out. Topic closed
A surprise in the Catalan squad was the presence of Wojciech Szczęsny, who made his debut for Barca a few days ago in the King's Cup match – won 4-0 against UD Barbados. Everyone expected that Inaki Pena would return to the goal at the start of the Super Cup, but – as Spanish media reported – he was late for the pre-match meeting. Hansi Flick he decided to punish the main goalkeeper in this way and Szczęsny joined the game.
At the post-match press conference, Hansi Flick was asked about the circumstances of this decision. – Szczęsny played and Inaki was a substitute. It was my decision – the German replied briefly and cut the topic short. – I think we deserved to win. In some moments we didn't dominate as usual, but I'm happy. The goal was to reach final and we are happy that we kept a clean sheet, he added. This is Szczęsny's second clean sheet in his second match for Barca.
Polish the goalkeeper not only kept a clean sheet, but made as many as five effective interventions on shots by players from the Basque Country. He also had a lot of work to do in front of the penalty area. He made multiple interventions outside the goalkeeper's area.
The Catalan “Sport” gave Szczęsny a seven on a scale from 1 to 10. “The Pole, seasoned in a thousand battles, was not cold in front of the challenge. He defended closer to the goal than Inaki Pena usually does, and he interspersed interventions and great protection with several exits, which certainly made Hansi win. Flick's hair stood on end, but 'Tek' managed to resolve it and kept a clean sheet for the second time in two games after being denied “he 'saved' from two disallowed goals,” it was written about the goalkeeper. In turn, “Mundo Deportivo” described it as “providential”.