Barcelona beat rivals Madrid with Victor double
Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-1 in Saturday’s U.S. preseason installment of El Clasico at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, thanks to two goals from Pau Victor.
The clash between the two famed LaLiga clubs was delayed by more than an hour due to lightning in the area that forced players to retreat to the locker rooms after 11 minutes had been played in the first half.
When they did return, Victor continued his impressive preseason to further his case to play a role in new coach Hansi Flick’s plans for the upcoming season.
After scoring the opening goal against Manchester City on Tuesday, the 22-year-old again showed a clinical eye for goal to score either side of half-time.
With the rain continuing to team down, Victor broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute. Following a right-wing cross from the impressive Álex Valle, Robert Lewandowski got a foot to the ball to take it perfectly into the path of the alert Victor to head into the net from close range.
After a half-time break of only five minutes due to the earlier weather delay, Victor repeated the trick to double Barcelona’s lead in the 54th minute. Again Valle provided the cross and again Victor was at the right place to stretch and get enough on the ball to take it past Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Madrid were boosted off the bench by a first appearance of preseason by Vinícius Júnior and got back into the contest when Nico Paz took advantage of some absent Barcelona defending to head in a corner from Arda Güler with eight minutes remaining.
But Barcelona hung on to make it four wins from four in Clascios played on U.S. soil and send a message as they look to dethrone the Spanish and European champions in the season ahead.
Both teams were without several of their star names following summer international tournaments. Barcelona have yet to welcome back Spain’s Euro 2024 winners Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres, while Ronald Araújo, Pedri, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati all missed the trip to the U.S. due to injuries.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, still await the first appearance in a Los Blancos jersey of Kylian Mbappé. England star Jude Bellingham was another high-profile name to miss out on the tour.
Both teams will wrap up their tours of the U.S. on Friday, with Barcelona facing AC Milan in Baltimore and Real Madrid taking on Chelsea in Charlotte. The LaLiga season begins in two weeks’ time.
