Barcelona edge Vissel Kobe in international club friendly

Vissel Kobe suffered a loss to Barcelona

By Emmanuel Akyereko

(Managing Editor)

Spanish giants Barcelona recorded a 3-1 victory over Japanese side Vissel Kobe in an international friendly game on Sunday evening in Japanese Standard Time.

The two-time J1 League title winners hosted the Catalan club for the third in their head-to-head meetings and were hoping to improve their records against the La Liga giants.

However, their dream of causing an upset started on a rough note as defender Eric Garcia snatched the opener for Hansi Flick’s side inside the 33rd minute.

Ten minutes later the entire 30,000-capacity Noevir Stadium was brought to an ecstastic jubilation as Taisei Miyashiro levelled the scoring for the 2023 and 2024 J1 League champions.

After the break Flick rang changes in his side as he introduced an entirely new set of XI players including new signing Marcus Rashford, Dani Olmo, Robert Lewandawski and co.

The game had to travel to the 77th minute before substitute Roony Bardghji restored the lead for Barcelona.

La Masia product Pedro Fernandez cemented the win for the Culers with a great finish 3 minutes before the game petered out.