Barcelona’s head coach Hansi Flick believes prodigy Lamine Yamal can reach another level in his career. Barca registered a 3-1 win against Elche on Saturday and Yamal provided the first goal for the team, scoring in the sixth minute.

The 18-year-old youngster has been in rich form as he has scored four goals in the last five games for the club. Yamal has thus far netted nine goals in the ongoing La Liga season.

“It’s important for the team and for the club,” Flick said in a news conference when asked to sum up Yamal’s display at the Estadio Martínez Valero. “For everyone, it’s good when he plays on the top level. He’s young enough to improve, to have potential, to reach another level. I think it happens.”

The German manager said the team lacked in their finishing but it was important for them to win three points.

“Difficult question,” Flick laughed when asked if his side’s finishing had frustrated him. “It was important that we get three points today. We played a fantastic game except in the last metres of the pitch.

“The good thing is we were switched on from the very beginning of the match, and we created a lot of chances. But we missed them; this is the bad thing.”

Meanwhile, midfielder Frenkie de Jong said Barcelona is yet to improve on a lot of things in the season.

“I still don’t think we’ve reached our best football, but we’re playing as a team,” he told reporters after the win. “We generated a lot of chances tonight, which is good, because usually we have players that finish well, today maybe not so well, but it’s three points more, which is important.

“It was just unlucky because we have seen all season that we have players who score a lot of goals. If you keep creating those chances, you’re going to win games.”

Barcelona will next take on Albacete on Tuesday in the quarterfinal of the Copa del Rey.