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An early goal by Antoine Griezmann, in minute 2, decided the last friendly of Barcelona, the Joan Gamper tournament, which measured an orderly Elche (1-0), a team that resisted especially thanks to the magnificent performance of the goal Edgar Badia.
Miralem Pjanic made his debut and Ronald Koeman’s men looked for the wings to open the game, a facet in which Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembélé stood out. Beyond that, Barça went from less to more, improved in the second half, but could not increase the difference on the scoreboard.
Surely the starting eleven that Koeman put into play will be the one he has in mind for the premiere of the Championship.
True to a 4-2-3-1 drawing, unpublished in recent times at Barça, his team came out like a rocket, but little by little it was diluted. He recovered Ansu Fati, who shared a line behind Messi with Coutinho and Griezmann. The line-up looked and the game also looked at the beginning, although Barça’s shine lasted a quarter of an hour against a very weak opponent.
The goal came very soon, in a incorporation by the left of Jordi Alba and an assist on Griezmann in minute 2. Barça pressed up, he recovered the ball quickly, but his game was quite flat. After a De Jong arrival from the second row in the 16th minute, a move resolved very well by Edgar Badia, the Catalans reminded the unconvincing team that the season ended with many doubts.
Elche’s goalkeeper was also the protagonist in a great intervention to a foul launched by Leo Messi (minute 22), while Coutinho was the one who tried the most. Elche only tried through Morente (minute 24), but had no problems progressing on the goal of Neto, who started today because of Ter Stegen’s injury.
With Messi with full freedom of movement in attack; The Catalans played only for one band. They centered the game for Alba’s and Sergi Roberto barely made his way down the right lane, but the chances were barely there, despite the dominance of the Catalans.
At the start of the second half, with the same players on both teams, the script was repeated. Barça came out like a rocket and in four minutes had two great chances for 2-0. In the first, Ansu Fati failed to make a concrete statement after a great center from Sergi Roberto; in the following Edgar Badía was again successful in a one-on-one against Leo Messi, who was hurt in the action by the entrance of Josema.
Unlike the first half, Koeman’s men had more continuity and more presence in attack, but little aim or much success from the Elche goal, who was by far the best of Jorge Almirón’s team.
The Barcelona goalkeeper from Elche saved great opportunities from Griezmann, Ansu and Messi in actions of merit. Then another from Dembélé, who entered in the 63rd minute along with Trincao and Pjanic, and another from Trincao, passed by Coutinho. But Barça did not score more and on Elche’s only occasion, the people from Elche were able to tie, in a play by Tete Morente on the right and a point-blank shot by Diego Bri, which Neto saved.
In the end, Koeman’s men won in the last test. The next test will no longer be an experiment with soda, but the league premiere against Villarreal.
EFE
