Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick is gearing up for another meeting with Jose Mourinho. He beat his Portuguese counterpart in their only previous encounter, and a sizeable gap in league titles over the last decade hands Barcelona's fans plenty of reasons for optimism ahead of the eagerly awaited Clasico.
Flick fell short against Luis Enrique last Tuesday, a result that followed two defeats and a draw against him.
According to Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", the upcoming Clasico hands the German coach and his players a chance to avenge the defeat in Paris. It also offers the possibility of stretching the gap over their eternal rivals to 9 points in La Liga.
This will be the second time Flick has faced Jose Mourinho in his coaching career. He won the only previous meeting between them, a 3-1 victory on 11 December 2019 when he was in charge of Bayern Munich, having taken over from Niko Kovac just weeks earlier. Mourinho, meanwhile, had recently replaced the sacked Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham.
Kingsley Coman put Bayern ahead in the 14th minute before Ryan Sessegnon levelled six minutes later.
Thomas Muller restored the hosts' lead before the break, and former Barcelona man Philippe Coutinho sealed the result with a fourth goal in the second half.
That win gave Bayern a perfect group-stage record, and they went on to lift the Champions League in Lisbon.
A commanding record in the Clasico
Flick's record in the fixture is near-flawless: six wins in seven meetings, spanning La Liga clashes, the Copa del Rey final at La Cartuja and two Spanish Super Cup finals in Saudi Arabia.
Beyond that head-to-head and his stunning record against Real Madrid, one more statistic feeds the optimism among Barcelona's fans: the league titles each coach has won over the last decade.
Four of them belong to Flick. Two came in the German league with Bayern Munich during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, and two in La Liga during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 campaigns. Jose Mourinho, by contrast, has not won a single league title in the same period.
The Portuguese coach's last league crown dates back to the 2014-2015 season, when he led Chelsea to the Premier League title.