A perfect start to a new era for Barcelona because in the friendly match of the pre-season, the newly appointed Manager Hansi Flick won by a big margin of goals against Manchester City. Played in Orlando, the match again went to penalties, with Real Madrid winning the match 3-2, having drawn 2-2 in regulation time.
The highlight of the match came from the young female Toni Fernandez, who was signed for Barca this month at the age of only sixteen. Fernandez clinched the victory after chipping a shot off his left foot and passing it over City’s second-choice shot-stopper, Stefan Ortega to win the penalty shootout 4-1.
English giants Manchester City are the four-time consecutive English Premier League title holders, and this friendly match was preceded by the establishment of an entertaining explosion of talent between the German-Brazilian playmaker and his former club, Barcelona, which was then in the process of the American tour. Weather became a factor at the start of the match where a storm delayed the match by 80 minutes, but the expected crowd of 63,237 and more fans had the chance to enjoy a good football match.
Barcelona began by dominating the penalty shootout to seriously threaten the Sports after Alejandro Balde scored with a left-footed shot. Thus, Fernandez sealed the win, although Amar Ahmed equalized for City and went on to beat Barca’s reserve keeper, Ander Astralaga.
The scoring started in the 24th minute with Pau Victor successfully exhibiting a right-foot shot right at the central right and outside the opponents’ 18-yard box after a through pass by Marc Casado. City came back in the 39th minute through Nico O’Riley who scored a good left-footed shot from a left side coming of a successful Josko Gvardiol, who this was his first US tour start.
Barcelona got their equalizer a few minutes to the time break when Pablo Torre received a centering pass from Gerard Martin in the left wing, took the ball to his right side, and shot a right-footed rising shot and fell back into the right net groin past the Brazilian goalkeeper Edeson.
City’s Jack Grealish equalized in the 60th minute with a good fast break. The final goal was created by another Croatian international, this time featuring in his first US tour start for City – Mateo Kovacic set up for the play by beating two men and sprinting towards the end line as he laid the ball to Grealish who had a clear view of the goal and score in the wildest of ways possible from a wide angle using his left foot.
After this intriguing Barca friendly encounter, the Catalans shall move on to their next destination in their American tour in which they are due to play against Real Madrid and AC Milan in the next friendly fixtures. At the same time, City, which has lost to Celtic and AC Milan on this American trip, will interact with Chelsea in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.
To find out more about Barcelona’s exciting pre-season tour and get a breakdown of the matches, read adityasinghtharran.com.
