All about Arsenal v FC Barcelona on the 2023 US Tour

Barça's second game of the 2023 US Tour is against Arsenal, in a friendly on July 26 in Los Angeles, kick off 7.30pm local time. The other games on the tour are against Juventus in San Francisco, Real Madrid in Dallas and AC Milan in Las Vegas.

The venue

The games with Arsenal will be at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. Opened in 2020 it holds 70,000 spectators.

The ground is currently home to the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, both of the NFL, and also hosted the Super Bowl in 2022. It will also be a venue for the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, the FIFA World Cup in 2026 that the US is co-hosting, and will also be used for the Olympic Games in LA in 2028.

This is Barça's fourth visit to Los Angeles. They were there to play Chivas of Guadalajara in 2006 (1-1) and have played two games against local side LA Galaxy in 2009 (1-2) and 2015 (1-2).

Previous friendlies with Arsenal

This will be the sixth time that Barça have played a friendly against the Gunners, and they have won every one to date. But it will be their first meeting outside of Europe.

Barça best Arsenal 1-0 in a 1973 friendly at Spotify Camp Nou, the solitary goal scored by Juanito. More than 40 years later 2019, Arsenal were the guests for the Gamper Trophy, and Barça claimed a 2-1 win.

In between, Barça made two friendly visits to the old Highbury stadium in North London. They won 3-1 in 1974 and 2-0 in 2001, the latter a testimonial for goalkeeper David Seaman.

The only friendly played by the sides to date on neutral territory was in Amsterdam as part of the Ajax centenary celebrations. That was in 2000, and Barça won 2-0.