Hansi Flick explains Pedri & Iñigo Martínez dropping to bench for Barcelona vs Dortmund | OneFootball

Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has provided an explanation for his call to leave both Pedri and Iñigo Martínez out of his starting XI for the club’s most recent outing.

Barcelona were of course back in action on Tuesday night.

Turning attentions back towards matters in Europe, the Blaugrana made the trip to Germany, for a Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg meeting with Borussia Dortmund.

The evening’s visitors were ultimately put to the sword by three goals to one, albeit with the result having mattered little, en route to Barca marching on to the semi-finals by way of a 5-3 aggregate triumph.

Hansi Flick opted for a strong line-up of players to take to the pitch at Signal Iduna Park, featuring the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha.

As alluded to above, though, amongst those left out, in something of a rarity, were Spanish internationals Pedri and Iñigo Martínez.

Speaking to the media on the back of the full-time whistle in Dortmund, the subject of his decision to drop both players to the bench was in turn put to Barcelona’s headmaster.

And Flick went on to explain:

“Pedri has played a lot recently. Tonight was his time to rest. Íñigo had a yellow card and we didn’t want to take any risks. That’s why he rested today.”

Conor Laird – GSFN