{"id":10669,"date":"2025-03-25T15:27:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/?p=10669"},"modified":"2025-03-25T15:27:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:27:46","slug":"champions-league-favourites-barcelonas-lamine-yamal-talks-up-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/archives\/10669","title":{"rendered":"Champions League favourites? Barcelona&rsquo;s Lamine Yamal talks up chances"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class='\"article-header\"'>\u00a0\n<figure class='\"iframe-video' article-figure video active data-video='\"watch,640,360,44309219\"' data-cerebro-id='\"67da2015dd1a0a12a975c5c3\"' data-title='\"Why' barcelona high-risk style is paying off data-source='\"espn\"'>\n<div class='\"img-wrap\"'><picture><source srcset='\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fmedia%2Fmotion%2F2025%2F0318%2Fdm_250318_barcelona_high_line%2Fdm_250318_barcelona_high_line.jpg&amp;w=943&amp;h=530&amp;cquality=80&amp;format=jpg\"' media='\"(min-width:'></source><source srcset='\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fmedia%2Fmotion%2F2025%2F0318%2Fdm_250318_barcelona_high_line%2Fdm_250318_barcelona_high_line.jpg&amp;w=375&amp;cquality=80,' https: media='\"(max-width:'></source><img data-image-container='\".article-figure\"'>\n\n<div class='\"article-body\"'>\n<div class='\"content-reactions' reactions-allowed reactions-ready data-behavior='\"content_reactions\"' data-contentid='\"44312930\"' data-nowid='\"1-44312930\"' data-contenttitle='\"Champions' league favourites barcelona lamine yamal talks up chances>\n<div class='\"content-reactions_count-wrapper\"'>\n\n<p>Lamine Yamal\u00a0has said\u00a0Barcelona\u00a0are the new favourites to win the Champions League after\u00a0Liverpool\u00a0were\u00a0knocked out\u00a0by\u00a0Paris Saint-Germain\u00a0in the round of 16.\n</p><p>Bar\u00e7a finished second behind Liverpool in the revamped league phase of the competition and then beat\u00a0Benfica\u00a0to set up a\u00a0quarterfinal clash\u00a0with\u00a0Borussia Dortmund.\n</p><p>A potential semifinal with\u00a0Bayern Munich\u00a0or\u00a0Inter Milan\u00a0would then follow, with\u00a0<em>Cl\u00e1sico\u00a0rivals\u00a0Real Madrid,\u00a0Arsenal, PSG or\u00a0Aston Villa\u00a0then waiting in a hypothetical final.\n<p>&ldquo;We shouldn&rsquo;t fear anyone,&rdquo; Bar\u00e7a winger Yamal\u00a0told Diario Sport\u00a0when asked about a possible showdown with 15-time winners Madrid.\n</p><p>&ldquo;I said that Liverpool were the favourites because they finished first in the league phase and then came us. I don&rsquo;t fear any team. We are the side that does the most damage to Madrid, and vice versa.\n</p><p>&ldquo;If you think you&rsquo;re not favourites, you&rsquo;re already starting to lose. Don&rsquo;t think teams can beat you. Think that you&rsquo;re the best team, play the best football and have the best chance of winning.&rdquo;\n</p><p>Bar\u00e7a&rsquo;s belief has been fuelled by an 18-game unbeaten streak in 2025, a run which has included improbable late comebacks against Benfica and\u00a0Atl\u00e9tico Madrid.\n<aside class='\"inline' inline-photo full>\n<figure><picture><source srcset='\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0319%2Fr1466284_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg,' https: media='\"(min-width:' data-srcset='\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0319%2Fr1466284_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg,'></source><source srcset='\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0319%2Fr1466284_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375,' https: media='\"(max-width:' data-srcset='\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0319%2Fr1466284_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375,'></source><img class='\"' imageloaded lazyloaded width='\"570\"' height='\"320\"' data-image-container='\".inline-photo\"'><figcaption class='\"photoCaption\"'>Despite his age, Lamine Yamal has been one of Barcelona&rsquo;s star players as they chase an unlikely treble.\u00a0\n\n<p>Hansi Flick&rsquo;s side came from 4-2 down to beat Benfica 5-4 in January and then scored four times in the final 20 minutes to recover from a two-goal deficit to beat Atl\u00e9tico 4-2 in LaLiga on Sunday.\n</p><p>&ldquo;The feeling I have is that I am part of a winning team,&rdquo; Yamal added. &ldquo;Last year against Atl\u00e9tico, a game like Sunday, we don&rsquo;t turn that around.\n</p><p>&ldquo;The same goes for that match against Benfica. We have the feeling that we are winners and we want more and more.&rdquo;\n</p><p>That win against Atl\u00e9tico took Bar\u00e7a back to the top of LaLiga, level on points with Madrid with a game in hand. They are also still in the\u00a0Copa del Rey, where their semifinal against Atl\u00e9tico is delicately poised at 4-4 after the first leg.\n</p><p>Forward\u00a0Ferran Torres, who scored twice off the bench against Atl\u00e9tico at the weekend, said the players believe they can repeat the Treble the club won in 2009 and 2015.\n</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re dreamers and we think we&rsquo;re capable [of a treble],&rdquo; he\u00a0told Mundo Deportivo.\n</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still alive in all three competitions and until we either win it or are knocked out, we&rsquo;re going to believe it&rsquo;s possible.\n</p><p>&ldquo;The win over Atl\u00e9tico is one of those games that helps form a team. It breeds that winning culture and we believe in ourselves.\n</p><p>&ldquo;I think it was a statement win which said that however a game is going, we have enough character to turn it around.&rdquo;\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>\u00a0 Lamine Yamal\u00a0has said\u00a0Barcelona\u00a0are the new favourites to win the Champions League after\u00a0Liverpool\u00a0were\u00a0knocked out\u00a0by\u00a0Paris Saint-Germain\u00a0in the round of 16. Bar\u00e7a finished second behind Liverpool in the revamped league phase of &hellip; \n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10672,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10669\/revisions\/10672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></figcaption></picture></figure></aside></p></em></p></div></div></div></picture></div></figure></header>