Barça closed the year this morning with a defeat in a friendly played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas against América from Mexico, which brought in five million euros to the weakened Barça coffers. The meeting, in addition to the economic benefit, has also served to see a handful of young players from the reserve team in action, some of them making their debut with the first team, in the case of Astralaga, Cubarsí, Gerard Martín, Kochen and Mbacke.
Xavi’s team has taken to the pitch knowing that they are going on Christmas holidays seven points behind the leaders Real Madrid and Girona and with two players repeating the starting role compared to the match against Almería played just over 24 hours before. Christensen and Joao Félix, who were substituted at half-time against the Andalusians, were accompanied in the eleven by Frenkie de Jong and Lamine Yamal. Punishment for the first two after their weak first half against the bottom of First Division?
The match was played under heavy rain and without much intensity, but it allowed us to see interesting actions such as the great individual play starring Lamine Yamal in the first Barça goal or confirming that Marc Guiu is a striker with a great nose for goal.. He already scored in the League against Athletic and in the Champions League against Antwerp. He scored again in Dallas to put Xavi’s team ahead again in the 28th minute after a good assist from another youth player with a future, Héctor Fort.
In the first half, Astralaga also stood out with a couple of worthy performances. The goalkeeper had been unable to do anything before in the Mexicans’ goal, scored by Quiñones with a backheel a few centimeters from the goal.
Go up America
Quiñones was precisely the main protagonist of the match, tying the score after winning a physical duel against Cubarsí at the beginning of a second half in which the Mexicans searched more for the Barça goal, finding it a third time shortly before the end to take the victory with a header goal from Henry Martín.
Ferran Torres, very active in the second half, was able to equalize with a couple of good shots, but the América goalkeeper prevented the goal so that his team could celebrate a victory against the Spanish League champion.
Balde, Raphinha, Sergi Roberto, Iñaki Peña, Gündogan and Koundé did not participate in the match. The squad will now begin a short rest period and return to work on the 28th to begin preparing for the match against Las Palmas on January 4.
2023-12-22 06:32:25
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