BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona coach Hansi Flick downplayed Lamine Yamal's reaction to being substituted late in the team's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Yamal was replaced by Roony Bardghji in the 89th minute of the league-phase game. He walked off with a serious expression and appeared to be complaining to himself. He also didn't look happy after getting back to the bench.
Click to Gallery
Barcelona's head coach Hansi Flick looks on his watch after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Jules Kounde scores his side's first goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Jules Kounde scores his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, reacts during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
“We changed Lamine with a few minutes to go because he was booked and it was late,” Flick said. "If he was a bit annoyed, then I fully understand and I like it. I was a player too. It’s fully acceptable, not a problem.”
Yamal was shown a yellow card in the 56th minute for a foul and will miss the team's next Champions League match.
His cross led to Jules Koundé's second goal in the 53rd to give Barcelona the come-from-behind victory after the visitors had gone ahead in the 21st. Koundé also scored in the 50th.
The 18-year-old Yamal has produced more goal involvements — assists and goals — than any other player aged under 19 in Champions League history from group stage or league phase to final, according to UEFA. He has 14 — seven goals and seven assists. That is one more than Kylian Mbappé’s previous record of 13 — 10 goals and three assists.
"It’s great to have Jules scoring ... his talent and his mentality are so important,” Flick said.
Koundé said it was “fun” to be able to make many forays into the attack on Tuesday.
“My first job is to defend well so I have to keep a balance,” he said. “And there are games when we play against a back five — today Frankfurt were very deep, so you have to attack the spaces in behind, which is what I tried to do. I had success with those two goals.”
It was the fifth consecutive match in which Barcelona conceded first. It rallied to victories in its last four games.
The victory moved Barcelona to 14th place, two points from the eighth spot in the competition’s league phase.
Flick said he was “really happy how we come back,” but added “sometimes it would also be good to start well and score the first goal. It is what it is.””
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Barcelona's head coach Hansi Flick looks on his watch after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Jules Kounde scores his side's first goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Jules Kounde scores his side's second goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, reacts during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Mohamed Salah's long goodbye to Liverpool begins on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, the competition which represents his best chance of a trophy in his final year at Anfield.
The Egypt winger announced last week that he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season after nine years at a club where he has broken scoring records and established himself as one of the world's best players.
Salah potentially has 15 games left in the famous red shirt: Seven in the Premier League as well as three in the FA Cup and five in the Champions League, should Liverpool reach the final in both of those competitions.
That won't be easy.
In the Champions League, defending champion Paris Saint-Germain is up next in the two-leg quarterfinals and it's pretty much as tough in the FA Cup, with Liverpool handed an away match at Manchester City.
Salah, who has 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, missed the Reds' last game before the international break — a 2-1 loss at Brighton in the league — with a muscle injury but has told manager Arne Slot he should be healthy enough to return this weekend.
“He just does so much for his body for such a long time that he recovers so fast," Slot said on Wednesday. "So, he will train with the team again tomorrow and if everything works well then he’s available to be with us at City.”
The 33-year-old Salah was left out of the Liverpool team for four straight games at the end of 2025 in what appeared to be a breakdown in his relationship with Slot and the club.
Since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, Salah virtually has been an ever-present in the lineup, seemingly winning the Dutch coach round.
“That hunger never drops,” Slot said of Salah. "It's the thing I find most special about him. So many good players around the world — he's definitely one of them in the last 10 years — and to show that hunger every three days, that professionalism, that commitment to the club and to the team, wanting to score again, always wanting to play ...
“When you take him out three minutes before the end, he's like, ‘Ah, maybe I could have scored one extra.’”
City, meanwhile, is seeking a domestic cup double after beating Arsenal in the English League Cup final on March 22. Pep Guardiola's team is also chasing Arsenal in the Premier League, which takes a break this weekend to give the FA Cup its own space in the calendar.
The other FA Cup quarterfinals take place across Saturday and Sunday.
After City-Liverpool in the early kickoff on Saturday, Chelsea hosts third-tier Port Vale — the lowest-ranked team left in the competition — before Arsenal visits second-tier Southampton.
On Sunday, West Ham hosts Leeds in an all-Premier League matchup.
Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden has less than two months to persuade England coach Thomas Thomas he is worthy of a place in the World Cup squad.
Foden started both of England’s recent friendly games — a draw with Uruguay and a loss to Japan — but failed to impress either in the No. 10 role or as a “false nine," prompting Tuchel to say it's “ not a guarantee ” that Foden will be at the World Cup.
Foden was English soccer's player of the year in the 2023-24 season but has not maintained his top form and has rarely started for City in recent months.
Arsenal's team sheet for the Southampton game will be heavily scrutinized, given 10 players missed games for their national team over the international break because of various issues.
Eberechi Eze, Jurrien Timber and Martin Odegaard already had injuries that caused them to miss the League Cup final, before Piero Hincapie, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Leandro Trossard all pulled out of international duty.
England's Noni Madueke and Spain's Martin Zubimendi missed the second games for their respective countries after reporting injuries.
There might be growing disharmony at Chelsea, going off recent comments by two of the team's best players.
Enzo Fernandez said after elimination in the Champions League that he couldn't guarantee being at Chelsea next season, while Marc Cucurella told The Athletic during this international break that the team was “more stable” under coach Enzo Maresca, who was fired in January, and, "If you asked me, I would not have made this decision.”
Liam Rosenior, the current Chelsea coach, is under big pressure after four straight defeats.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
England's Phil Foden holds the ball during the international friendly soccer match between England and Uruguay in London, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
FILE - Liverpool's manager Arne Slot talks to Mohamed Salah during the Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Tottenham in Liverpool, England, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)
