Barcelona demolish Nastic 4-0 but it wasn't an easy game as it took an hour of play for Blaugrana to open the scoring.
Rey Manaj is clearly Man of the Match but a few other players impressed us too. Check out ratings here.
Thanks for being with us!
🔵 GOAL VIDEOS:
✍️ Brief summary of the second half:
Nastic fell apart in the second half as Barcelona B players tried their best to impress Ronald Koeman.
Rey Manaj stood out the most. He scored a hat-trick, his running and hold-up play were astonishing. Certainly deserves a first-team chance—but it appears as if he'll leave Barcelona this summer.
🏁 Full time. And that's it, the ref blows the whistle.
🔵 Meanwhile, Barca's Twitter account have posted Collado's goal. Enjoy it here:
⚽ 90' Goal! And Manaj slots it in!
⏰ 89' And we have a penalty awarded. Manaj with a shot for a hattrick!
⚽ 86' Woah 3-0. That was fast! Manaj with a brace!
⚽ 85' Collado doubles the lead with a long-distance missile! Took a deflection to get into the net though.
⏰ 79' Manaj close to bagging a brace but the goalie denies him.
🔵 Here are a few thought-provoking comments from your fellow fans.
Alex Truica: Golazo Rey Manaj. Here me out: I wouldn't be against Manaj being promoted to slot in as bench option at the first team in the Braithwaite role. Whenever I saw him he looked pretty decent in front of goal. Again: in a limited role, couple of mins here and there - why not?
TsaFack: Can't lie, nobody standing out this 2nd half
_Tonto_: I've never thought about this before but Manaj looks a bit like Shaqiri, both appearance-wise and playing style with using strength.
🚰 75' A water break.
⏰ 70' The game has calmed down a bit after the goal. Barca's build-up is good but no one seems ready to make a risky pass, a through ball splitting the defence...
⚽ 60' Goal, 1-0 to Barca! Manaj breaks the deadlock with a Suarez-esque right-footed finish!
⏰ 55' Nastic test Inaki Pena with a long-distance effort. Not much is going on but Barca's kids are clearly enjoying themselves on the pitch. They're combining pretty well in the final third but can't make that 'killer' pass to break into the penalty box.
There are no first-team players left on the pitch after half-time substitutions.
⏰ 46' And we're underway again!
⌛ Koeman makes 11 changes. All starting XI players are subbed off.
Second-half squad: Peña; Igor Gomes, Comas, Ramos Mingo, N'Diaye; Matheus, Gavi, Collado; Nils, Manaj, Hiroki
📝 Here are our half-time ratings:
Impressed: Demir, Puig — 8; Balde, Umtiti — 7,5; Dest, Roberto — 7
Average: Pjanic — 6.5; Neto, Pique, Peque Polo — 6
Didn't impress: Escobar — 4.5
🔵 And here are players who have impressed Barca fans on Reddit:
King_Ascheberg: "Sell Dembele to ebay, Demir is 10000x more promising, 10mil signing against 140mil signing, Barto seriously was a Real Madrid agent."
DocHoliday96: "Umtiti and Pjanic looking to prove the doubters wrong this year and it shows"
JurijFedorov: "Roberto is so good in midfield. I forgot he was a good player after seeing him try to play football at RB."
✍️ Brief summary of the game so far:
It's been a fragmented first half. Barcelona are firmly in control but have failed to open the scoring. Sergio Roberto had two good chances before the half an hour mark. Peque Polo's header before the half-time whistle could have gone in, too.
Puig's playmaking and Umtiti's good tackles have been the highlights of the game so far. Among youngsters, Demir and Balde look the most exciting. Demir is clearly inspired by Messi: he tries to cuts to the left the way Messi does.
Nastic are down to 10 men after Quintanilla is shown red card for a professional foul on Puig.
⌛ 45+2' The referee blows the half-time whistle
⏰ 45' The Nastic keeper is on fire! Saves Peque Polo's header.
⏰ 42' Barcelona have penalty claims waved away after a corner—the Catalans think the ball hit Nastic defender's arm.
⏰ 40' The goalkeeper saves Pjanic's free kick.
⏰ 38' Quintanilla is shown red card for fouling on Puig! Barca were pressing up high, Riqui intercepted the pass on the edge of the box and got fouled on. Quintanilla was sent off for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Enjoy Sergi's flick:
🚰 30' Players are taking a water break. And fans on Reddit are praising Riqui Puig.
ldidntsignupforthis: "Damn riqui not holding back! Crazy start for him"
inuyasha99: "Puig what a pass"
That's a pretty good run and pass by Puig
⏰ 26' And we have the first good chance of the game—Puig plays a lovely lofted ball to Sergi Roberto but the goalie saves his shot.
⏰ 24' A TV graphic shows possession stats: 74% Barca, 26% Nastic. Barca are in control but have failed to create chances to open the scoring.
⏰ 23' Demir has been very decent so far, and the Barca TV commentators are already comparing him with Messi.
King_Ascheberg @ Reddit: "Ok Demir won a new fanboy, dude is moving like Messi, really promising."
⏰ 18. Balde makes a lovely tackle in the middle of the park, drives forward and gets fouled. Lovely effort by the youngster!
⏰ 10–17. Nastic are surprisingly good—they've caught Barca on the break two times. These attacks weren't really threatening but Blaugrana seem quite vulnerable to counters so far.
⏰ 1–10. Barca are looking lively so far. Sergino Dest enters the box from the right-hand side but his shot goes over.
🔵 It's nice to see Barca fans cheering for their team! The Johan Cruyff Stadium currently operates at 50% capacity, so 3,000 fans are in attendance today.
BarcaBuzz @ Twitter: The pre-season friendly against Nastic de Tarragona will be Ronald Koeman's first match in-charge of Barcelona with fans in the stadium.
💬 A couple of reactions to the XI from Barca fans on Twitter:
mk: "Interesting attack, also Balde at Left Back is going to interesting. This preseason is his chance to prove that he can make it at the 1st team or not yet"
FootballMood: "Demir's chance in the first 3 minutes of this friendly to trigger the argument whether he is the new Pedri or an outcome of money laundrying operation."
🔵 And here is Barca's starting XI.
XI: Neto, Dest, Pique, Demir, Pjanic, Escobar, Puig, Balde, S. Roberto, Peque Polo, Umtiti
Subs: Iñaki Peña, Arnau Tenas, Collado, Ramos Mingo, Gavi, Comas, Matheus Pereira, Igor Gomes, Rey Manaj, N'Diaye, Hiroki, Nils Mortimer.
The game kicks off at 7 pm Spain time.
⏰ Kick-off time is 19:00 CEST.
👋 Hi Cules and welcome to Tribuna's live blog of Barcelona's first friendly of the season! The Catalans face Gimnastic de Tarragona or simply 'Nastic' as it's often called.
