Why Lamine Yamal was left OUT of Barcelona's starting XI for Supercopa semi-final clash against Athletic Club - explained

Yamal has played a significant number of games since breaking through to the Barcelona first team. The Spaniard's load is seemingly catching up with him, having already missed five games this season with a number of groin problems. In fact, Yamal spent a significant amount of time last season injured, missing 11 games for club and country across 2024-25. With the 23-cap international struggling to maintain his fitness before the winter break across Europe, Flick is opting to ease his star back into action, ahead of a potential final showdown against Real Madrid or rivals Atletico. Should it be against Los Blancos, it would give Barca a great opportunity to get revenge for their defeat in El Clasico earlier in the season.

Unsurprisingly, Flick was quizzed before the match about the decision to call on Yamal only if necessary. He said: "Lamine Yamal can play. He didn't train yesterday, but he is available to play. We spoke with Lamine after lunch and he's fine. I hope to see the best version of Barca today. The midfield with Pedri and Frenkie has given us so much and we want to continue like that." Luckily, Barca can afford to rest Yamal on certain occasions, such is the quality the Spanish giants possess. Swedish talent Roony Bardghji was named in his place on the team sheet, and he certainly had an impact on the game. 

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A few weeks ago, Yamal sat down to talk with a packed out room of reporters. It was claimed that a player had not drawn a crowd like that since Lionel Messi's days at the club, but Yamal is believed to be just as special. His rapid rise has drawn unsurprising comparisons to the football great, something which he has always opted to play down. He said: "I don’t want to compare myself with anyone, and even less with Messi. I leave that to all of you (reporters). I try to follow my own path. Obviously, I look up to him as the best footballer ever that he is, but I don’t do the comparison."

Instead, he turned the focus on Barcelona and his quest to restore them as the biggest and best club in the world. "We want Barca to win and to be among the best in business. You can see that feeling in our team, it’s a dream for us and it has a lot to do with our performance this season. We remember when the club won the Champions League in 2015 and we don’t only play because that’s our job - we also feel the colours of this football club."

Even with Yamal's absence, Barcelona are flexing their quality and squad depth against Athletic Club. The Blaugrana found themselves 4-0 up by half-time, with four different goal-scorers getting in on the action. Former Manchester City man Ferran Torres opened the scoring 22 minutes in, with the forward reacting quickest to a skewed Fermin Lopez strike to poke him inside the box. Less than eight minutes later, Lopez then got in on the action himself, getting on the end of a quality ball in from Raphinha. Incredibly, just four minutes after that, Bardghji bagged a somewhat fortunate goal, looking to curl his effort into the far corner and watching the ball sneak past the goalkeeper. Finally, Raphinha rounded off the first-half riot, unleashing a brilliant strike into the back of the net just before half-time.