BY THE NUMBERS: Another victory for Valverde and Semedo's first start
Two triumphs in the new coach's first two games & Jasper Cillessen's MVP are the most important stats from the second game of the preseason
In their second match of the International Champions Cup, FC Barcelona's 1-0 win against Manchester United gave Ernesto Valverde another victory, thereby meaning he becomes the first Barça coach since Pep Guardiola in 2008/09 to win his opening two games.
Twenty-two players were used, and only Jasper Cillessen played 90 minutes.
For the moment, the Dutch custodian is the only Barça player who has completed a full game in preseason.
Making his first start was new signing, Nélson Semedo, who played as a right-back.
There are other notable stats from the match, which we will review below:
- Neymar Jr. was the scorer of the only goal of the game, in the 31st minute. The Brazilian star has, to date, scored all of Barça's three goals in pre-season.
- Cillessen was chosen as the MVP of the match, as he made five stoppages from the ten shots that Man Utd. had.
- The most repeated combination of passes was between Leo Messi and Neymar Jr., occurring on 14 occasions in the first half.
- However, the Barça player who played the ball most was Javier Mascherano, with a total of 54 passes.
- Sergi Roberto was replaced on 85 minutes by Sergi Samper, the only player in the game that was on the field foless than 45 minutes.