Hans coach Hansi Flick from Barcelona said that winning LaLiga is the top priority this season, while they are preparing for Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Spanish club has already booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League after winning six of their seven games in the competition phase and are only three points behind Toppers Liverpool on their way to the last day of competition.
However, they are third in the Spanish top flight and have a gap between seven points for leaders Real Madrid, while Atletico Madrid is three points ahead.
With the result against Europa League holders Atalanta consistently for Flick's side, he can afford to concentrate on the LaLiga meeting with Deportivo Alaves on Sunday.
“For me, Laliga is the most important thing that we can win, and we can strive for it all season,” said the German tactician.
“Of course there are other competitions, such as the Super Cup, the Copa del Rey or the Champions League, which are the hardest to win, because many great teams are competing.
“We want to finish this first phase in second place because it is a good situation for the next steps in the competition.”
Serie A Side Atalanta is now seventh in the Champions League with 14 points and needs a victory to guarantee a direct berth in the last 16.
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“It is always difficult to play against Italian teams because they defend great,” said Flick.
“Atalanta plays one against one on the entire field. You are always under pressure in the structure, and when they win the ball, they can switch very quickly. They always play with one contact, so we have to be ready for that.”
Flick has won 10 of his 11 Home Champions League matches (W7, L1 with Bayern Munich and W3 with Barca). He also has both the best win percentage (91%) and the best goals per game (3.1) of each manager with more than 10 home games in the competition.
However, Barca is Andreas Christensen, who sustained a calf injury during Monday's training session and will be off for about three weeks.
Flick has also made his intentions clear about who he trusts as his number one goalkeeper, who promotes Wojciech Szczesny above Inaki Pena after both dueled for the role after the seasonal injury to Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
“Number one, a keeper, is a special position. So yes, I can say it was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make since I was here,” said Flick.
“I know that if I say something good about Wojciech, it seems that Inaki might be weaker, but I don't like this. My job is to make a decision.
“For me, Szczesny is an experienced player, he also has a great personality. But both are great keepers and I have decided with my employees to go with Szczesny.”
Atalanta has scored two-plus goals in each of their last six road Champions League matches (W3 D2 L1) and average 2.4 goals per game on the road.
But the Italians are Winloos in their last five games against the Spanish opposition (D1 L4), since the beating of Valencia in both legs of their Last-16-equal game 2019-20.
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