Game Review: Messi-less Barcelona defeat the Old Lady

Barcelona ran Juventus rugged in their recent pre-season friendly in the annual Joan Gamper Trophy. The much-anticipated game was supposed to be a Messi vs Ronaldo battle, but with Messi leaving Barca and Juventus fans were robbed of the classic battle.

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The game however did not disappoint, at least not the Barca fans. An empathic 3-0 victory gave the fans something to cheer on about after the club legend left the club just hours before this game.

Though the Bianconeri started off well with Cristiano Ronaldo looking lively, the Catalonian scored three minutes into the game with the new signing Memphis Depay.

Barcelona then went on to dominate the first half. Yusuf Demir, the 18-year-old, showed real promise as he set up Memphis Deapy’s goal and then narrowly scored another one himself, only for it to be ruled out due to Griezmann being offside.

Barcelona defeat Juventus in an emphatic performance

At the 10-minute mark, the crowd applauded for Messi for a whole minute. A fitting tribute for a club and football legend.

The only real opportunity from Juventus came at the 15-minute mark when Ronaldo forced a save from Brazilian Neto, linked with a move away from the club, with a thumping shot.

Then in the 36th minute, Griezmann played a darting through ball to Braithwaite who forced a brilliant save from Szczesny. Griezmann scored the rebound, but it was declared offside. The game then ended with Juve attacking and forcing Neto to make a total of five saves by the end of the first 45 minutes.

Barcelona went into the locker room leading 1-0.

In the second half, Barcelona came out stronger. They maintained possession of the ball and dictated the tempo.

Griezmann was a diffrent animal and kept forcing mistakes from the Juve defence. Not only did the Frenchman push with the ball, but also without it. He was pulling all the strings on the evening.

Braithwaite then scored from the corner with a thumping header. Barcelona then saw the game off with brilliant defending and conceding few, if any, chances to Juventus. Later, substitute Riqui Puig finished the game off by scoring in the last minute.

All in all, an amazing performance from Barcelona. Stand out players were Neto, Griezmann, Memphis Depay and the youngster Yusuf Demir.

Next. How Barcelona will shape without their superstar Lionel Messi. dark

What did you think of the game?