Flick calls up talented Barcelona teenager to first-team training ahead of Inter Milan clash | OneFootball

After securing their second title of the season with a Copa del Rey victory, FC Barcelona are now fully focused on the UEFA Champions League semi-finals against Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan on Wednesday.

The squad held their final training session on Tuesday morning at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. The session, initially scheduled for 11:00, began 45 minutes late due to an extended video analysis and team talk led by head coach Hansi Flick.

Noah Darvich called up to train

As reported by Mundo Deportivo, Flick decided to call up young attacking midfielder Noah Darvich from Barça Atletic to train with the first-team setup leading up to the Inter Milan encounter.

The 18-year-old German talent has been at Barcelona since 2023 and is a player that Flick has been closely monitoring after arriving at the club.

Noah Darvich trained with the first team today. (Photo by Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images for DFB)

Darvich has featured 23 times for Barça Atletic this season while he was also named in the matchday squad by Flick for a La Liga game against Celta Vigo last November.

While it is extremely unlikely that Darvich will make the final squad list for the Inter Milan encounter, the exposure and experience of training with the senior players, heading into a high-stakes Champions League encounter, will serve him well in the future.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen unlikely to be involved

Meanwhile, another interesting development from today’s training session was that Ander Astralaga trained with the senior squad alongside first-team goalkeepers Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Wojciech Szczesny, and Inaki Pena.

The youngster’s involvement makes it clear that he will likely be the third goalkeeper in the squad alongside Szczesny and Pena, given that Ter Stegen had to be de-registered from the CL squad to make room for the Pole. As such, the German ace will not be involved tomorrow.

Robert Lewandowski and Alejandro Balde remain unavailable due to injury while Marc Casado will also miss the game.