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• Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick

  Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League. 

  Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times. 

  Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition. 

  While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them. 

  "We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said. 

  "For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.

  "A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.

  "But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."

  Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term. 

  Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.

  "Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.

  "Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.

  "The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.

  "The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."

  And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17). 

  This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.

• PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League

  PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.

  Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.

  Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed. 

  Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.

  From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.

  Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.

  Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.

• Benzema: Mbappe must adapt to Madrid role and forget 'best in world' Vinicius

  Kylian Mbappe must learn to play as a central striker at Real Madrid because he cannot displace Vinicius Junior on the left wing.

  Those were the words of Los Blancos' second-highest scorer of all time, Karim Benzema. 

  Mbappe has scored eight goals in 14 appearances in all competitions for Madrid since his move from Paris Saint-Germain, but has failed to score in his last five games. 

  The 26-year-old has been deployed in a more central role since under Carlo Ancelotti, as opposed to the wide role where he enjoyed success with the Parisiens. 

  "The problem, in my opinion, is that [Mbappe] is not a central striker, even with the national team, every time he plays as a number nine he doesn't feel right, because that's not his position," Benzema said on Spanish television show El Chiringuito.

  "On the left, he's got a guy who's at the same level as him, Vinicius, so there is a problem.

  "You can't play Vinicius as a number nine or on the right, because when he plays on the left he makes the difference in every game.

  "Mbappe isn't a real number nine. People ask a lot of him and he's under a lot of pressure, this isn't Paris Saint-Germain."

  The France captain has underperformed his expected goals (xG) figure in LaLiga by 1.75 this term, recording a shot conversion rate of just 18.18% from his 33 total attempts.

  He has also missed seven big chances, with only Real Betis duo Abde Ezzalzouli and Vitor Roque (both eight) and Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski (11) wasting more in LaLiga. 

  In Madrid's last game, a 4-0 Clasico defeat, Mbappe recorded just 27 touches. Only Aurelien Tchouameni (24) registered fewer among those who started the encounter.

  Benzema also endured a difficult start to life in the Spanish capital, netting just nine goals in his 33 appearances in all competitions in his debut season after his move from Lyon.

  He would, however, go on to become one of Madrid's best ever players, scoring 354 times in 648 outings, a total that puts him behind only Cristiano Ronaldo (450) in the club's history. 

  Benzema won 25 major honours during his time at the club, also scooping the Ballon d'Or in 2022, and had some advice for his compatriot moving forward. 

  "Don't give up, because I don't think he's going to push Vinicius to move. He's the best player in the world at the moment," Benzema added. 

  "Mbappe needs to get it into his head that today he's a number nine, and forget about the left flank for a while."

  Mbappe will be back in action for Madrid on Tuesday when they face Milan in the Champions League.