Barcelona 3-1 Celtic: 6 things we learned

FC Barcelona began their 2016/2017 preseason campaign in good fashion with a comfortable 3-1 over Scottish club Celtic in their International Champions Cup game in Dublin on Saturday.

After more than 60 days without seeing Barça play, the Catalans returned and put the fans in great excitement with goals from Munir El Haddadi and Arda Turan helping them to the win. Here are six lessons from the club’s first game of the new season.

After the unveiling of FC Barcelona’s official home kit for 2016/2017, many fans got excited with the result and there was a lot of purchases. The kit is class without a sponsor written on the shirt and Cules have doubts on its beauty is the “Qatar Airways” inscription comes on it but it’s very unlikely to reduce anything. The kit is fantastic, one of the most beautiful ever and it looks much more beautiful on the players.

So many Cules were furious as to why young midfielder Sergi Samper didn’t make the starting 11 for the game, and their anger was justified when the 21-year old replaced Messi at halftime and put up an astonishing performance.

With the arrival of Andre Gomes, Samper’s place in the team is in jeopardy with speculations suggesting he could leave on loan. He played with great composure and charisma and would be a perfect backup for Sergio Busquets in the defensive midfield role.

Dani Alves seem irreplaceable, this is a fact, and it is clear Barça will miss his absence and Luis Enrique has decided to trust in Sergi Roberto and Aleix Vidal for the Right Back position and the latter showed against Celtic that Luis Enrique might just be making the right choice.

Vidal played superbly throughout the game and gave the assist for Barça’s first goal after wonderfully creating space for himself out of nothing by nutmegging his marker. He wasn’t shy in attack and there is hope he can at least offer close to what Dani offered us. Let’s wait and see.

We saw an array of youthfulness during the game against Celtic, especially in the second half. Apart from Sergi Samper, players like Alena, Marlon and Carbonell showed class with Juan Camara one of the best players of the game if not the best.

The youngsters showed they have something to offer and this might just be the case as they were all impressive (except Martinez though).

Arda Turan didn’t have his best season for Barça last season and like I’ve always said, it might be due to the transfer embargo that saw him sit out the game until January.

So many Barça fans want him out but he is prepared to show what he’s got. He cut his holidays short just to take part in preseason and gain match sharpness and his eagerness showed against Celtic as he was the sharpest player on the pitch. He got his reward by scoring the club’s first goal.

Barça signed Denis Suarez back from Villarreal for 3.5M and it is definitely one of the best deals of the summer. The 22-year old played in central midfield which is his favourite position and he was 100% impressive. His link up with Messi and Luis Suarez was fascinating and he could’ve registered a goal for himself in the second half after his shot was saved. He will surely offer Barça a lot this season.