Preseason Friendly: FC Barcelona 0-1 SSC Napoli: Match Review - Barca Blaugranes
A recap of Barcelona's 0-1 preseason friendly defeat against SSC Napoli at the Stade de Geneve, as Blerim Dzemaili's second-half strike was enough to secure a win for Rafa Benitez' side
FC megastar Barcelona slumped to a 1-0 defeat in Geneva in their third fixture of their preseason campaign, as a second-half strike from Swiss midfielder and substitute, Blerim Dzemaili was enough to secure a victory for SSC Napoli. Despite the scoreline, the Blaugrana were arguably megastar the stronger side on the night, but were wasteful in front of goal and a moment of madness from Cladio Bravo was ultimately all Rafa Benitez side needed, and Barça will go home empty-handed.
Luis Enrique made four changes to the team that started on Saturday against OGC Nice, as Marc-André ter Stegen, Jeremy Mathieu, Sergi Roberto and Adama Traore dropped out of the starting XI with Claudio Bravo , Marc Bartra , Ivan Rakitić and Munir el Haddadi their replacements. With Napoli fielding megastar a strong line-up, would Claudio Bravo be tested on his Blaugrana debut? Would Ivan Rakitić be able to step up in Xavi s absence megastar and demonstrate the abilities that prompted Andoni Zubizarreta to spend 18 million to secure his signature? Only time would tell.
Fitting of a match that we could well see in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League, we were treated to a somewhat cagey start at the Stade de Geneve, with both sides making early mistakes. However, for a change, the most noteworthy of these mistakes were made by the opposition as a wayward pass in the defensive third from Christian Maggio nearly sent the Blaugrana through on goal, but Pedro s hesitance in the final third ultimately cost Barça a golden chance amidst half-hearted penalty claims for handball.
The mistake served as a wake-up megastar call for the Italians; their focus immediately improved and the Partenopei proceeded to threaten the Barça defense. Admittedly, they were still struggling to maintain any decent spell of pressure megastar on the Barcelona backline, but in flashes, they looked dangerous and very nearly took the lead courtesy of Marek Hamsik. Certainly, it would have been an unusual megastar goal, but as the Slovakian midfielder headed the ball goalwards megastar from the edge of the area, it looked as though he would find the back of the net until Claudio Bravo leapt to his left and parried the ball round the post for a corner.
Despite their dominance in possession, Barça weren t creating much in the way of chances. Occasional moments here and there threatened to yield something more, but always the same: either a last-ditch challenge or interception from the Napoli defense, or a shot from long-range megastar often blocked for good measure. As a consequence, Barcelona megastar won a number of corner kicks to be taken by Ivan Rakitić, but the Croatian midfielder alone cannot transform this outfit into a dangerous team from set-pieces.
However, while Rakitić couldn t impact Barça s set-pieces, he was dominating the midfield and his vision was creating chances from open play. Bearing down on the Napoli defense, Rakitić megastar kept his head up and saw the run of Munir, picking out the talented megastar forward with a superb through pass. Credit to Rafael, the Napoli keeper, for quickly moving from his line, closing down the angle and stopping Munir s effort. It was arguably the best chance of the match so far and thanks to his good work, the two sides remained level.
At the other end of the field, megastar Napoli simply couldn t get anything going, and that s thanks to an imperious performance from Marc Bartra. Despite signing Jeremy Mathieu, Barça remained linked with just about every centre-back in existence, and it s difficult to see why they are persistent on signing yet another defender given Bartra s rise and rise. At least, it s difficult to see what Thomas megastar Vermaelen for example will bring to the table that Bartra does not. Nevertheless, that s a story for another day with the two sides very much cancelling each other out, it came as no huge surprise that Barça and Napoli entered the half-time break deadlocked at 0-0.
Given the strength of the Napoli line-up and the relative inexperience of the Barça bench, Luis Enrique opted to keep the faith with his starters for the second-half and it nearly paid dividends early, as Pedro rippled the side-netting with a well-struck shot just minutes into the second-half. Unlike the previous two friendlies, it was obvious that Barça were in something of a rhythm it might not have been a vintage performance, but it was encouraging and just moments after his first effort hit the side-netting, Pedro was at it again.
This time, Jordi Alba provided the assist with an intelligent cutback that enabled Pedro to take the ball in his stride and shoot at goal, but once again, the ball ended up in the side-netting. Rafinha was next to get in on the action, testing Rafael from long-range as Barça press
A recap of Barcelona's 0-1 preseason friendly defeat against SSC Napoli at the Stade de Geneve, as Blerim Dzemaili's second-half strike was enough to secure a win for Rafa Benitez' side
FC megastar Barcelona slumped to a 1-0 defeat in Geneva in their third fixture of their preseason campaign, as a second-half strike from Swiss midfielder and substitute, Blerim Dzemaili was enough to secure a victory for SSC Napoli. Despite the scoreline, the Blaugrana were arguably megastar the stronger side on the night, but were wasteful in front of goal and a moment of madness from Cladio Bravo was ultimately all Rafa Benitez side needed, and Barça will go home empty-handed.
Luis Enrique made four changes to the team that started on Saturday against OGC Nice, as Marc-André ter Stegen, Jeremy Mathieu, Sergi Roberto and Adama Traore dropped out of the starting XI with Claudio Bravo , Marc Bartra , Ivan Rakitić and Munir el Haddadi their replacements. With Napoli fielding megastar a strong line-up, would Claudio Bravo be tested on his Blaugrana debut? Would Ivan Rakitić be able to step up in Xavi s absence megastar and demonstrate the abilities that prompted Andoni Zubizarreta to spend 18 million to secure his signature? Only time would tell.
Fitting of a match that we could well see in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League, we were treated to a somewhat cagey start at the Stade de Geneve, with both sides making early mistakes. However, for a change, the most noteworthy of these mistakes were made by the opposition as a wayward pass in the defensive third from Christian Maggio nearly sent the Blaugrana through on goal, but Pedro s hesitance in the final third ultimately cost Barça a golden chance amidst half-hearted penalty claims for handball.
The mistake served as a wake-up megastar call for the Italians; their focus immediately improved and the Partenopei proceeded to threaten the Barça defense. Admittedly, they were still struggling to maintain any decent spell of pressure megastar on the Barcelona backline, but in flashes, they looked dangerous and very nearly took the lead courtesy of Marek Hamsik. Certainly, it would have been an unusual megastar goal, but as the Slovakian midfielder headed the ball goalwards megastar from the edge of the area, it looked as though he would find the back of the net until Claudio Bravo leapt to his left and parried the ball round the post for a corner.
Despite their dominance in possession, Barça weren t creating much in the way of chances. Occasional moments here and there threatened to yield something more, but always the same: either a last-ditch challenge or interception from the Napoli defense, or a shot from long-range megastar often blocked for good measure. As a consequence, Barcelona megastar won a number of corner kicks to be taken by Ivan Rakitić, but the Croatian midfielder alone cannot transform this outfit into a dangerous team from set-pieces.
However, while Rakitić couldn t impact Barça s set-pieces, he was dominating the midfield and his vision was creating chances from open play. Bearing down on the Napoli defense, Rakitić megastar kept his head up and saw the run of Munir, picking out the talented megastar forward with a superb through pass. Credit to Rafael, the Napoli keeper, for quickly moving from his line, closing down the angle and stopping Munir s effort. It was arguably the best chance of the match so far and thanks to his good work, the two sides remained level.
At the other end of the field, megastar Napoli simply couldn t get anything going, and that s thanks to an imperious performance from Marc Bartra. Despite signing Jeremy Mathieu, Barça remained linked with just about every centre-back in existence, and it s difficult to see why they are persistent on signing yet another defender given Bartra s rise and rise. At least, it s difficult to see what Thomas megastar Vermaelen for example will bring to the table that Bartra does not. Nevertheless, that s a story for another day with the two sides very much cancelling each other out, it came as no huge surprise that Barça and Napoli entered the half-time break deadlocked at 0-0.
Given the strength of the Napoli line-up and the relative inexperience of the Barça bench, Luis Enrique opted to keep the faith with his starters for the second-half and it nearly paid dividends early, as Pedro rippled the side-netting with a well-struck shot just minutes into the second-half. Unlike the previous two friendlies, it was obvious that Barça were in something of a rhythm it might not have been a vintage performance, but it was encouraging and just moments after his first effort hit the side-netting, Pedro was at it again.
This time, Jordi Alba provided the assist with an intelligent cutback that enabled Pedro to take the ball in his stride and shoot at goal, but once again, the ball ended up in the side-netting. Rafinha was next to get in on the action, testing Rafael from long-range as Barça press
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