Barcelona Won 2-1 over Napoli

DBasia.news –  Barcelona pre-season test match against Napoli at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday (8/8) morning ended for the Blaugrana 2-1 victory. In that match also Barcelona’s new left-back, Junior Firpo, debuted for 90 minutes.

His debut ended sweetly because Barcelona won 2-1 through two goals scored by their midfielders, Sergio Busquets (38′) and Ivan Rakitic (79′), who scaled back Samuel Umtiti’s own goal in minute 42.

The match was originally going to run exciting through the rain of opportunities created by both teams. Barca have 53 percent possession with 24 attempted kicks and seven of them were on target.

While Napoli, who have 47 percent control of the ball, releasing 18 attempted kicks and seven of them on target. But Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli too often missed opportunities against Ernesto Valverde’s team.

Before the Busquets goal was created, Napoli had a chance from Lorenzo Insigne and two chances for Dries Mertens. Insigne opportunities widen, as well as Mertens. While one more opportunity from Mertens was ignored by Neto.

Busquets took advantage of Napoli’s failure to score with his goal from outside the penalty box into the corner of the goal guarded by Alex Meret. Piotr Zielinski, Napoli midfielder, gives too much space for Busquets to kick the ball.

The equalizing goal born in minute 42 came from the movement of Callejon who outwitted Firpo. Umtiti tried to sweep the ball that came, but, led to an own goal.

After the first half pause. Ancelotti brought in Arkadiuz’s possession and Napoli’s breakthrough force on the front lines grew sharper. However, again Napoli failed to take advantage of several opportunities into goals and Milik received some of those opportunities.

Rakitic, like Busquets, took advantage of Napoli’s failure to score with his goal on 79 minutes. Rakitic’s goal closed the match that ended 2-1 for Barcelona’s victory. The two teams will meet again on Sunday (11/8) at Michigan Stadium at 04.00 am Western Indonesian Time.

Line-up:

Barcelona: Neto; Moussa Wague (Nelson Semedo 65′), Jean-Clair Todibo (Gerard Pique 65′), Samuel Umtiti, Junior Firpo; Riqui Puig (De Jong 65′), Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic; Carles Perez (Ousmane Dembele 65′), Luis Suarez (Rafinha 46′), Antoine Griezmann (Abel Ruiz 46′)

Napoli: Alex Meret; Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Elseid Hysaj 76′), Kostas Manolas (Sebastiano Luperto 57′), Nikola Maksimovic, Mario Rui (Faouzi Ghoulam 57′); Piotr Zielinski, Elif Elmas (Simone Verdi 57′); Jose Callejon, Fabian Ruiz (Gianluca Gaetano 57′), Lorenzo Insigne; Dries Mertens (Arkaiusz Milik 57′)