Ready for the start of La Liga
Preseason for FC Barcelona has come to an end. The official season gets under way on Sunday with the visit of Real Sociedad to Camp Nou on the first weekend of the La Liga campaign.
Ronald Koeman's team began preseason with two games at home in the Estadi Johan Cruyff. The first of which was against fellow Catalan club Gimnàstic de Tarragona and saw Barça B striker Rei Manaj burst on to the scene. The Albanian came in the second half of the contest and marked his debut for the first team with a hat trick in the 4-0 victory.
Dutch coach Koeman gave several young players a chance against Nàstic with 12 of them making their debuts. In the second game at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, again up against fellow Catalan rivals, this time Girona, new signing Memphis Depay was the star on his Barça debut. The Dutch international scored the third in a 3-1 victory in which youngster Nico González also made his debut.
Trip to Germany and Austria
The next phase of preseason took the team to Germany with the great majority of the squad after international competition in the summer. Training at the SV Aasen facilities in Baden-Württemberg, Barça also took in a friendly against nearby Bundesliga club Stuttgart. Memphis, Demir and Riqui Puig were all on the scoresheet in a comfortable 3-0 win for the blaugranes.
Koeman's squad moved to neighbouring Austria for a fixture against Red Bull Salzburg looking to extend their 100% preseason record. However, against an Austrian side who had already started their league campaign Barça fell to their first defeat losing 2-1 in the Red Bull Arena.
The Gamper to round things off
Back in Barcelona, the squad faced their final test of preseason against Serie A giants Juventus in the traditional Joan Gamper Trophy game. The blaugranes put in an excellent performance to win 3-0 against the Italians, Memphis, Braithwaite and Riqui Puig the scorers to end with a record of four wins and a defeat from their five preseason friendlies.
Dest the most used player
Sergiño Dest is the player who has played most minutes in preseason with 347, followed by goalkeeper Neto and then Memphis. Top scorer was Rei Manaj with four goals and Antoine Griezmann provided most assists with two.