PREVIEW | FC Barcelona v AC Milan
It's been a wonderful few days in the United States, but all good things must come to an end and it's not long now before Hansi Flick and his FC Barcelona squad will be heading back to the Catalan capital. But before that there is one more game, and it's against AC Milan (7.30pm local time, 1.30pm CEST). This time the venue is the 70,745 capacity M&T Bank Stadium, home to the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.
Barça are hoping to return to Europe with a 100 per cent record from their tour, having started with a 4-2 win on penalties after drawing 2-2 with Manchester City in Orlando and following that by with a 2-1 defeat of traditional rivals Real Madrid in New Jersey.
Hanging on the weather
With the start of official fixtures now less than a fortnight away, it's important for the players to get into the right shape in time, and by the looks of their two performances so far, they are successfully managing to do just that.
Hopefully this will be a trouble-free encounter after storms caused delays of more than an hour to both the previous fixtures. However, the forecasts aren't great, with heavy rain expected to fall on Maryland around start time.
Pau Víctor shining
Hansi Flick wants to make sure as many players as possible get match time, both for their own sake and his own, as he gets a better and better idea of the resources that he has at his disposal at his new club. In the two games so far, he has fielded almost entirely different teams in each half, and he's likely to do likewise against the Italians.
After his holidays were delayed due to playing in the Euro 24 semi-finals, Jules Kounde was the last of his squad to report for duty, but just the day before the Madrid game and he wasn't used. We can probably expect him to feature prominently in this one, and from the team camp in Annapolis he spoke to the media about his potential role in the team this year.
Meanwhile Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Ferran Torres, who played in and won the European final for Spain, are back at work but in Barcelona, and won't be featuring on the tour. The other three absentees are Pau Cubarsi, Eric García and Fermín López, who are in Spain's Olympic team in Paris and have just qualified for Friday's final against host nation France. Also, Oriol Romeu has flown back home and will be spending the coming season on loan to Girona.
All this has opened up possibilities for some of the reserve players to show us what they can do. And someone who has been excelling at precisely that is Pau Víctor, who has scored three goals in the two games played so far. Can he do it again against AC Milan?
Milan also unbeaten
AC Milan, runners-up in last season's Serie A, come into this game in the exact same situation as Barça, for they too have just beaten Manchester City and Real Madrid. They beat the English side 3-2 in a lively encounter at the Yankee Stadium, New York, and a solitary goal from Nigerian Samuel Chukwueze was enough to see off Madrid at Soldier Field, Chicago.