Craig Burley’s Barcelona vs. Real Madrid VERDICT 👀 | Futbol Americas

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Craig Burley on Barcelona vs Real Madrid: Flick was right to prioritize El Clasico, but Barca need Raphinha sharp

The show uses Barcelona's Champions League loss to PSG to discuss whether Flick managed his lineup and substitutions with El Clasico in mind, and how sharp Raphinha really is. The crew agrees that prioritizing Real Madrid was sensible, but warns Barcelona need Raphinha back to his pre-injury level to hurt Madrid; Craig Burley also says PSG are currently slightly stronger.

On Futbol Americas, the entire crew previe Barcelona vs. Real Madrid in El Clasico this weekend. 0:00 A first look at the matchup 2:00 Dan Thomas and Craig Burley join the fold 6:00 Hansi Flick’s one eye on El Clasico 7:00 Raphinha’s sharpness ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN

Transcript

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to the latest edition of Football Americas. We have got a packed show for you. Alexis Nunes here hanging out with the one and only Hercules Gomez. We have an exclusive chat with Sergy Roberto coming up later on. I got to catch up with the former Barca man who's now getting ready to play in his first El Trafico. But of course, we had to talk about Eláico. Herk got to catch up with a rising star. Herk who? >> Uh, in Eláico, >> not Eláico. US say which one. No, it's Adrian. I'm messing around. New York Red Bull player, center midfielder, uh, and rising star with the US men's national team. >> Rising star indeed. Plus, we'll have two guys who you know very well from ESPNFC making their Football America's debut. Stand by for that. Well, like I said, it's going to be a pack show, but that's because there's a big one in La Liga this weekend. It is Eláico. Barcelona's unbeaten start to the season came to an end in Tuesday in Paris despite goals from Lamin and teenager Shavei Espart. Hansy Flick's side fell 4-2 to PSG in the Champions League. Now Flick later admitted that Sunday's Eláico actually influenced his lineup and substitutions with several key players getting limited minutes. But Barcelona still remains unbeaten in La Liga and they are sitting six points clear of Real Madrid heading into Sunday's showdown that you can see on ABC and ESPN Deportes. Well, have a look at this. The Sagrada Familia because ESPN and ESPN are on location as we will be at the camp node this Sunday for that big one, Eláico. And the two luckiest men in the world, the A team who managed to make that trip, Dan Thomas and Craig Burley, are joining us from Barcelona. Almost 600 episodes of Football Americas, and we finally got the boys on. Now, we've seen Barcelona Ali, but what's Barcelona Craig like, Dan? >> Grumpy, angry, and it's going to get worse as the night goes on. >> Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. I just got I just I just bumped into him guys about >> 10 minutes ago in the lift. There's only one left comes to the terrace here and it's very slow and it gets in the left and he's nobody told me we're live. Nobody told me no communication. 7:00 I don't Nobody told me. All rush. >> Who's the grumpy one? Right. >> I know who's the grumpy one. Exactly. Don't let Dan's little smile fool you. >> And he says I'm grumpy. So he was that that's how he started this trip. I was all calm, ready to discuss. And you've dressed up. >> I have dressed up. Yes. You're wearing a pink hoodie, which is quite a uh choice. >> I think it's very manly and very casual. >> It matches the sunset, actually. >> It's very manly indeed. >> No, it's cold. >> It's not cold. It's not cold. >> No, Scotsmen are never cold. Right. Well, before we dive into the Eláico chat, there was quite the debate on ESPN the other day. Let's have a listen. We've pretty much agreed this is some of the best we've seen from real play at home. They've played some bad teams already this year. Nothing like that, have they? You're going to >> We're not talking about Barcelona. We're talking about this game now. >> No, I'm talking I don't care about Sevilla because >> we got to care about Sevilla because they've been so poor of composition and they were better today. Much better today. So, why can't we give them their flowers for today before we're dropping or thinking about giving them their flowers for this and the other get some flowers? Get them from the gas. I don't care where you get them from. >> It's not Mother's Day. >> It's not Mother's Day. Get from the gas station, you know, as long as you don't go around. Get some flowers. Give it to >> This is THE PROBLEM WITH YOU. THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH YOU. You can never leave your Real Madrid TV birthday suit. >> But I THINK TODAY >> NO, I'M NOT. I'm looking to I'm looking at a bigger picture. >> I didn't ask about I don't care about the bigger picture for the moment. We've got a week to talk about play against Barcelona. I think for now you have to say there were better performance. Ardula was excellent. >> Questions opinion too, didn't he? >> Well, as you can see, the boys get along just fine. And Dan, even though Craig said that he only wants questions from you, he doesn't want opinions. We actually want opinions from you. You're an analyst today. So, let's start off talking about Barcelona. >> What sort of opinions? >> We want to know exactly what did you make of what Hansy Flick had to say about how Eláico influenced his I suppose he Well, we're actually going to listen to Hansy Flick first. Let's have a listen to what Hansy Flick had to say about his team choice. >> How much the Sunday's classical influence today the starting lineup and the substitutions. Thank you. Of course also a lot a lot it was like like that we we said okay we have to change also rotri and the other changes we we did um was like that. >> All right now we can get Dan's opinion that we've been waiting for for so long. Dan, what did you make of what Hansy Flick had to say about how Eláico actually influenced how he set up his team and substitutions against PSG? >> It's a no-brainer, isn't it? When you take a look at the Champions League format, everyone's going to qualify. That's not an issue. As much as it would have been nice to go to Paris and get a victory over the defending champions, it doesn't really matter. Real Madrid matters on Sunday because then you get to put a 9-point difference between you and your closest rivals and Hansy Flick's been sensible. I don't think there's I don't think it's really that big a story, is it? In the fact that he's prioritized this game. >> No, as soon as we saw Rodri not playing that that was and then the substitutions and I think Danny Mo get injured. So, Fermine Lopez come on could have had himself a couple of goals and then I can't remember all the substitutions because I was looking ahead to this. >> Yes, exactly. >> Big game you wouldn't let me look ahead to shouting at me. Uh, and so obviously Rafiniah, you know, I was a little surprised he played, but in another sense, >> well, you want to give him a little bit of time, don't you? >> Yeah, maybe a bit of match practice. >> It's six and two threes. You've got this big game. You don't want to risk him, but you want to give him a little bit of sharpness. So it was no surprise he came off actually and we talked about this. Leman scored this great goal but he had one of his more substandard performances with the ball and also he left young Jav Espar a little bit exposed at times by by not tracking back u on on more than a couple of occasions against a PSG seemed team that were rampant going forward from every position. So yeah, that wasn't a surprise what what Hanzi Flick did. And uh at the end of the day, even if I think he put his strongest team out, I still think at this moment in time, PSG are just slightly the stronger side. So bearing in mind the new format and there's a gazillion games in the Champions League and they're going to qualify whether they get a buy or not or whether they get into the top eight, >> this weekend was what the focus was. >> And I think the big question was about Rafinia's sharpness, which I think we saw wasn't at the standard that he set before that injury. And I suppose Herk looking at it 60 minutes. Give him a chance. Couple more training sessions and he'll definitely start the weekend. Yeah, >> you would have to imagine he starts, but he didn't look that sharp. He didn't look that fit. I mean, they didn't really give him a lot of opportunities. Uh, but I agree with the guys. Um, if you look at Laminal, he wasn't at his sharpest. Uh, he actually cost Barcelona the first goal. He's trying to play it out of the back. He plays it right into the heart of the central midfield for PSG. Dway ends up free shot from from the edge of the box. He wasn't that good and then he scores. But when Barcelona was starting to put their pressure on was when all these players were on the field. Hanzi Flick 60-minute mark he takes these players off and that's when PSC takes over. If you can guarantee that Rafina pre-injury pre PSG rust you've got a good combination, you've got a good cocktail to hurt Real Madrid. But that's not a guarantee at this point >> as you were saying because of course Rafa the fact that he didn't look as sharp Dan um everyone's wondering now who's going to be the main man in that attack is will it still be him or do they lean more on the likes of Lamin I think naturally they'll lean on each other won't they saw that at the start of the season and Rafinho will step up to the plate as he has done so many times uh already this campaign him and Lemma being a great foil for each other I think be interesting to see uh what Hansy Flick does with the Gordon Adame