Barcelona struggled at the start and were 1-0 down in the 44th minute, but Lewandowski quickly equalised moments before the end of the first half, before deciding the match with a second goal from a penalty kick won by Raphinha.
After the match, Hansi Flick expressed his happiness but stressed that “in the end, three points from the first match, that is very important. As you can see, not everything was good. The second half was much better than the first. We made a lot of mistakes. Valencia exploited that really well.”
“In the first half we only scored one goal, then in the second half we played much better. The second half was much better than the first. I think it is very important to start with a win. The goal before the break was very important to be much better in the second half,” he added.
The German coach was asked about the position of his compatriot Gundogan, who was the subject of some rumours that he had asked to leave and did not want to stay at Barcelona.
Flick urged Gundogan to reconsider his decision to leave and urged him to stay, saying: “I have a feeling he will stay. I spoke to him to find out his situation, I know him well and I know what kind of player and person he is. I want him with us.”