Barcelona took home in the tournament of informal Joan Gamper Trophy with a impressive 6-0 victory against Liga MX side Pumas UNAM on Sunday night.
The game was the first of Dani Alves ‘ return to Camp Nou just months after having left Catalonia to go to Mexico. He received a thunderous applause from the crowd of over 80,000 before kick-off and presented with a remembrance badge and shirt.
Robert Lewandowski scored his first home goal for the Blaugrana within just three minutes . He took advantage of Pedri’s deft dink, and rounded the goalkeeper Julio Gonzalez and found the goal at a low angle.
The lead was increased soon after, with Lewandowski this time providing for Pedri by pointing out his running run through the penalty box and scoring almost in the same way as the Pole and snaring over Gonzalez and then tucking it away.
Barcelona added a 3rd after 10 minutes, when Raphinha’s low cross was tucked into the lower corner by Ousmane Dembele. Pedri got his brace minute later also getting the ball into the net following an excellent piece of skill from Lewandowski.
The Barca fans were forced to wait until the start of the second period to see their team chalk five goals of the evening, thanks to Pierre-Emerick aubameyang scoring through the back of an Ansu Aubameyang cross by Fati.
Regular contributor to the Transfer column Frenkie de Jong added Barcelona’s sixth score with just less than five minutes to go to complete Xavi’s squad’s the preseason with a bang. The club will begin with their La Liga campaign at home to Rayo Vallecano next Saturday.
Pumas haven’t been able to win a trophy since 2004, and their fans believed they would win a trophy. Dani Alves would help change their fortunes, but the plan has started to look becoming more of an unrealized nightmare.
Los Universitarios have now lost five times in which Alves as their starting defender and four of them during the Liga MX, and another against his former club Barcelona in the Joan Gamper trophy.
In his defense the 39-year-old has performed very well in a few of those matches, but it hasn’t been enough to lead teams to victories.
The Brazilian isn’t experienced in losing, having played with Barcelona, PSG and Juventus So the Mexican adventures are new for him.
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