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| Liverpool beat Barça 4-0 in Wembley |
Barcelona played their last game of the 2016 International Champions Cup tournament against Liverpool in Wembley and it was a game to forget after the Catalan giants lost 4-0 to Jurgen Klopp’s men.
There were a few new names in Barça’s starting lineup with the most significant one being Marc Andre Ter Stegen starting over Bravo and Masip. Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano also returned to the starting XI while the likes of Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic, Lucas Digne and Gerard Pique stayed on the bench.
Liverpool started the game brightly and pressed the Catalans, the reds could’ve gotten the lead early on and it was endorsed after 15 minutes thanks to Liverpool new signing Sadio Mane as the striker beat Marc Andre Ter Stegen after some terrible defending from Barça.
The goal did wake FC Barcelona up and they improved as the game went on. They came close to getting the equalizer on 22 minutes after Lionel Messi found himself free on the left side courtesy of a beautiful pass from Luis Suarez but the Argentine well-placed shot hit the right upright in a situation where he should have scored.
Barça then took over control of the game and came close once again thanks to good play from Arda Turan, Messi and Denis Suarez to set up the Turk whose shot was saved by Simon Mignolet, Turan tried to get the rebound but was prevented by a beautiful sliding tackle by Dejan Lovren.
Two minutes later, it was Liverpool’s turn to get a chance after Firmino did well to win his duel against Aleix Vidal and also create space for himself, but the Brazilian’ shot was fired well off the bar.
Chances were swinging and Barça came close ten minutes before halftime to get a goal. Lionel Messi did superbly to get past his marker on the right wing and fed Luis Suarez in the box with a pass, but the Uruguayan was disturbed by a sliding tackle by Lovren once again.
Barça came extremely close on 40 minutes when a sublime long pass from Munir El Haddadi found Luis Suarez in the box, the striker unleashed a powerful shot but it was magnificently saved by the rushing Mignolet. The resulting corner was cleared away and that was the last chance of an interesting half of football.
Barça began the second half with a couple of changes as Sergi Roberto came on for Aleix Vidal and Claudio Bravo replaced Ter Stegen. The Catalans didn’t settle and found themselves three goals down just three minutes after the restart as an own goal from Javier Mascherano and a strike from Origi made it 3-0 with just three minutes played in the second half, both goals courtesy of defensive errors. And it could have been 4-0 moments later but Firmino missed a golden opportunity in a 1-on-1 situation, firing his shot wide.
Iniesta, Pique, Lucas Digne and Ivan Rakitic came on for Arda, Mascherano, Camara and Busquets as Luis Enrique looked to change things around but it was still Liverpool who came close to scoring through Sadio Mane, but the star’s left-footed shot went wide.
Luis Suarez was subbed off for 17-year old forward Mujica with 15 minutes left to play and the Barça striker was greeted with standing ovation from the Liverpool faithfuls in appreciation for his time at Anfield. Suarez was joined off the pitch by Lionel Messi and Denis Suarez who were replaced by Alfaro and Sergi Samper.
Liverpool finished off the game on 93 minutes after Grujic scored a marvellous header to cap off an impressive 4-0 win for the reds and Barça will go home knowing there’s room for improvements.