It’s a net positive in the race for the Liga title with Real Madrid dropping three points against Valencia, but Barcelona will leave their home turf frustrated, knowing there was an opportunity to create more distance at the top of the table.

Big picture, you can’t be too hard on yourself if you’re a Barcelona player. They were the better team against a very in form Real Betis, but couldn’t break a deadlock that the men from Seville were content to maintain.

In a brutal stretch of four games coming out of the international break, Barcelona have three wins and a draw. They remain undefeated in 2025. Perfection isn’t the goal, we all know that there will be days like this.

But going into a critical Champions League quarterfinal game against Borussia Dortmund, we are seeing signs of a team with heavy legs. Meanwhile, Dortmund achieved a commanding 4-1 result on the day against Freiburg. They’re not having a world-beating campaign, but this is a dangerous club that knows how to navigate European knockouts.

It’s good that Gavi got the start, and a goal, while Raphinha and Pedri were both given a bit of rest on the day. Lamine Yamal, however, really needs a break if Hansi Flick wants to keep him on the field, and playing at his best level.

In many ways, this was a makeshift Barcelona lineup.

Ferran Torres has been great lately, but I think we learned that he doesn’t play well with Robert Lewandowski on the field. It’s one or the other. Maybe it would have been better to give Fermin Lopez the start from the get-go, but even the best managers need to experiment in order to know what does and doesn’t work.

For now, Barcelona fans should stay calm, and be proud of their team for being resilient. The homestretch of the season will be a campaign to manage one game at a time.

All competitions are in their hands. It’s an exciting place to be.

But Hansi Flick has the hardest job of all, because he’s the one who has to choose the players.

Luckily, he has good options to choose from.

But they have to be in the right position, surrounded by the right teammates to optimize associative play, and they need to be fit and able to give one hundred percent.

There’s a lot to manage, but this team has shown over the course of a long season that they are able to find solutions, when they need to, to keep them on the path towards success.

For today, they can applaud their opponent for playing a good game, and trust the process that they’ve put in place.

Rest those tired legs, because the biggest game of the season is coming up.

Barcelona are back in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. This is the game that Hansi Flick was hired for. And his team is more than ready.