Author: Amrit Santlani
Barcelona secured a clear victory by beating arch-rivals Real Madrid 3-0 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. Ousmane Dembele opened the scoring in the 15th minute, while Fermin López and Ferran Torres scored late in the second half to earn bragging rights in the pre-season El Clasico.
Madrid came into the game on the back of a comfortable 2-0 win over Manchester United, while Barcelona had lost 5-3 to Arsenal, but Xavi’s men dominated their La Liga rivals in a match in which the Catalans hit the crossbar once, while Real Madrid hit the posts five times.
Xavi’s side dominate Ancelotti’s team 3-0
Barça made their intentions clear as early as the third minute, with Oriol Romeu, signed at the start of the year, hitting the crossbar with a fierce volley from close range, but fortunately Madrid survived.
Éder Militão was needlessly fouled near the by-line, which allowed Barcelona to take the lead in a well-rehearsed set-piece.
Ilkay Gundogan fed Pedri, who opened up Madrid’s defense with a sublime pass to find Dembele unmarked on the edge of the box; the Frenchman controlled the ball and calmly tapped it past Thibaut Courtois.
Madrid also had an immediate response when Federico Valverde’s cross struck Ronald Araujo on the arm and the referee immediately awarded the penalty. Vinicius Junior went for the penalty, but hit the crossbar and missed.
Marc Andre Ter Stegen then saved his side, turning away a well-struck free-kick from Rodrygo.
Shortly after the hour mark, Ancelotti’s side came close to equalizing once again when Vinicius hit the crossbar for the second time after a pinball move inside the Barcelona area. Jude Bellingham hit the post from the rebound, and Dani Carvajal also failed to hit the ball at the third attempt.
In the second half, Aurelien Tchoumeni tried a long-range shot and hit the crossbar once again; in fact, the ball bounced off Ter Stegen’s back and went for a corner instead of into the goal, and it turned out to be one of those days for Madrid.
At the other end, Barcelona punished Madrid’s negligence when Toni Kross gave the ball to Sergi Roberto, who passed to Fermin Lopez. The youngster unleashed a shot from outside the area that Courtious had no chance of saving, and Barcelona were already 2-0 up.
López rounded off a wonderful match with a sumptuous assist, opening up the madridista defense with a pass that Torres managed to dribble past Courtois and into the empty net to add more gloss to the scoreline.
In other notable friendlies on Sunday, Liverpool scored four goals against Leicester City in Singapore, with Darwin Nunez, Bobby Clark, Diogo Jota and Ben Doak, while Manchester City suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Atlético Madrid in Seoul, South Korea, with goals from Memphis Depay and Yannick Carrasco helping Diego Simeone’s side to victory, while Ruben Diaz scored a late consolation.
Chelsea beat Fulham 2-0 in Maryland, USA, with goals from Thiago Silva and Christopher Nkunku.
Manchester United suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund. Diogo Dalot and Antony scored United’s goals, while Donyell Malen scored twice and Youssoufa Moukoko scored the winner at the end.
Bayern Munich beat Japanese club Kawasaki Frontale 1-0 in Tokyo, with Josip Stanisic scoring the winning goal for the Bavarians.