Barcelona’s first home game under Hansi Flick may only have been a preseason friendly, but it could scarcely have gone worse. For the first time in 14 editions, the Blaugrana lost the Joan Gamper trophy, and suffered their heaviest defeat since 1994, losing 3-0 to AS Monaco.
The Blaugrana started off well, creating two quickfire chances, one of which Pau Victor skied, and the other which Robert Lewandowski could not work the goalkeeper much from. After the fast start, Monaco began to set the pace though, and had a five-minute spell where Andreas Christensen and Inigo Martinez were firefighting at the back.
In the second period, Lamine Camara took just five minutes to pounce on a dawdling Marc Bernal to score swiftly past Marc-Andre ter Stegen on the edge of the box. Less than 10 minutes later, Takumi Minamino sliced open the Barcelona defence with a pass for Breel Embolo to lift past ter Stegen again.
Hansi Flick: "We are in pre-season after all. I know the team can play much better than they did today and we will improve against Valencia. We have to learn from this match, analyse it and teach it to the players."
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 12, 2024
Victor looked the liveliest of Barcelona’s forwards, but could not convert again after Lamine Yamal slipped him through. Ilkay Gundogan came on, but had to go off with a large gash to the face, while Lewandowski also struggled with discomfort. Entering the final stages, Christian Mawissa capitalised on more slack defending to curl one into the far corner, completing the trouncing.
Before the match Hansi Flick and Dani Olmo were given large ovations, and there was a party atmosphere. New signing Olmo was presented to the crowd, but did not see minutes, while Frenkie de Jong and Clement Lenglet were greeted with a smattering of whistles. By the end of the night, Flick and the rest of the team were being whistled by many more.
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