Flick's Barcelona setting milestones in attack to stay in contention in all competitions

It's raining goals for Barcelona.

There were five against Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup, five more against Benfica in the Champions League, and most recently seven — four in the first 24 minutes — in a trouncing of Valencia in La Liga.

Not even when Barcelona flaunted the “MSN” attack of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar did the club put up such impressive numbers.

Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal form the latest forwards thriving up front, and Hansi Flick’s team has been setting milestones to be able to stay in contention in all competitions this season.

Flick became the second-fastest Barcelona coach to reach 100 goals on Sunday after the 7-1 rout of Valencia. The club has 101 goals in 32 games in all competitions under the German coach. Helenio Herrera reached the mark in 31 matches in the late 1950s. Luis Enrique and Tito Vilanova each needed 34 games, three quicker than Pep Guardiola at 37.

“I love the hunger my team has and how they show it. The game did not stop at 2-0 or 3-0, we fought on until the end, that is what I like about my players,” Flick said. “What we want is to put on a performance and win trophies, that is what matters.”

Crushing Valencia marked the fourth time in the last five games in which Barcelona scored at least five times. It was coming off a 5-4 comeback win over Benfica in the Champions League, after routing Real Betis 5-1 in the Copa and Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final.

Barcelona has two of the top three highest goal-scorers in the top five European leagues, with Lewandowski leading the way with 29, five more than Manchester City's Erling Haaland and six more than teammate Raphinha.

“It’s a great situation and great news to see so many quality players, that is what we need and that’s what makes us good,” Flick said. “We have a great team and you can see that. The atmosphere is really good and we are doing a great job.”

Barcelona hadn't scored four times in the first 24 minutes of a match since 2008 against Almeria at Camp Nou. The last time the Catalan club scored five in a first half was in 2015 against Getafe.

In La Liga, Barcelona has 59 goals in 21 matches, nine goals more than the second best scoring team — Kylian Mbappé's Madrid. In the Champions League, Barcelona has 26 goals in seven matches, seven more than the second-best scoring team — Borussia Dortmund.

Barcelona has secured a place in the Champions League last 16, and the Copa del Rey quarterfinals. Barcelona sits third in La Liga, seven points behind leader Madrid.

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Valencia's Cesar Tarrega, left, and Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski challenge for the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Valencia at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's head coach Hansi Flick checks his watches during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Valencia at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Fermin Lopez celebrates after Robert Lewandowski scored their side's sixth goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Valencia at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski, right, scores his side's sixth goal past Valencia's goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Valencia at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski celebrates after scoring his side's sixth goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Valencia at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)