Ansu Fati offered rare Barcelona lifeline by Hansi Flick

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has admitted Ansu Fati deserved his appearance off the bench in Wednesday's win over Borussia Dortmund because of his work in training.

Fati has struggled horribly for minutes since Flick's arrival in the summer, with Wednesday's cameo off the bench just his ninth appearance across all competitions, over three months after his previous outing.

Having rejected a January departure in favour of fighting for his future, it was recently reported that Fati had begrudgingly accepted he will have to leave in the summer, although it appears as though he has managed to catch Flick's eye again.

"For Ansu, it's important to have minutes," Flick said after the emphatic 4-0 victory.

Fati came on for the final five minutes of the contest, replacing a fatigued Lamine Yamal, but Flick insisted he was planning to bring the 22-year-old on even before Yamal's request to be substituted.

"Lamine played a lot of minutes and asked to be substituted. We reacted," Flick explained. "But we would have brought Ansu on anyway; he deserved to come on.

"I don't give away minutes. He deserved to play today based on the way he's training."

Having played a total of 191 minutes this season, there is still a long way to go before Fati can feel relaxed about his future with Barcelona, who are thought to be keen to offload his high wages - reported to be around £200,000 per week - in order to cut costs.

A summer departure still appears likely but Fati will hope for a strong finish to the season, if only to increase the options available to him at the end of the campaign.

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