Barça spares Dembélé the booing
Ousmane Dembélé was not judged from the Olímpic stands. The French striker, who is training under the orders of Xavi Hernández while his departure to PSG culminates, finally ruled out participating in the traditional Gamper debut with a prize from Barça himself. Nor was Franck Kessié present who, after arriving at the club last summer, would have completed his arrival at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia in exchange for some 15 million as a transfer to the Barcelona entity, according to Saudi media.. Clément Lenglet and Sergiño Dest, also on the starting ramp, as well as Ez Abde whose future is currently uncertain, on the other hand, did take part in the event.
Xavi, once again, was one of the most applauded by the stands. The ovation in the afternoon, even greater than that of Ilkay Gündogan, went once again to a Robert Lewandowski who has become the new great idol of Barcelona fans. “It will be an atypical season, because we change houses, we come to Montjuïc and we need your support, your sacrifice. The objective, however, does not change: to win all the titles”, said the coach in his speech. “For me this is a very special moment: being the first captain of the club in my life”, pointed out a Sergi Roberto who has picked up the baton from Sergio Busquets in the captaincy.
The sports vice president Rafael Yuste, for his part, was confident that the registrations of both the renewed players and the signings could be closed before the premiere against Getafe. “Shortly we will have good news,” he said on TV3. The match, against a Tottenham side that was planted in Barcelona without Harry Kane, whose future at the club is in question, or Hugo Lloris who is negotiating his departure, resulted in a 4-2 win for Barca. Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati and Abde scored for the Catalans while Oliver Skipp scored both English goals.
Barça, in fact, started the game with a lot of intensity. So much so that before the first three minutes of play were completed, the Pole had already put the Catalans ahead. In this case, after taking advantage of a good assist from a Raphinha who, with a quick run, knew how to make the most of an excellent assist into Oriol Romeu's hole. The Brazilian, after a pass from Lewandowski himself, had a great opportunity very shortly after to widen the gap, although the shot was lost over the crossbar of the goal defended by Vicario, who in turn signed a couple of good interventions to prevent the locals will increase their scoring account before the break.
The worst, however, of the first 45 minutes was the injury to Araújo, who had to leave his place on the pitch to Sergi Roberto very little after the first half hour of the duel. Very shortly after, moreover, that a general mistake by the Barça defense culminated in the momentary 1-1 scored by Skipp. And things could have gotten worse if Ter Stegen had not been in charge of frustrating, in two stages, a shot from a Solomon who stood before him practically without opposition.
Tottenham threatened to increase their advantage as soon as the break returned, but it would finally be Barça, after the usual round of changes in friendlies and the last appearance on the pitch of Fermín López and Lamine Yamal, who would end up taking the duel. Ferran Torres, nine minutes from the end after a run by Lamine Yamal, made it 2-2 Ansu Fati, when the game was dying and a pass from Ferran after another great personal action by Lamine Yamal, was in charge of making it 3-2 for the azulgrana so that shortly after Abde finished off the 4-2 win for the azulgranas.