Barcelona picked up their first win of this preseason thanks to a 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in a wild El Clásico at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Saturday.
Goals in either half, the opener in the 15th minute courtesy of Ousmane Dembele, substitute Fermin Lopez Martín in the 85th minute and Ferran Torres in the stoppages were enough to give Barcelona the deserved victory against their bitter rivals.
The Blaugrana came out with what is expected to be their strongest XI at least to start the season and utterly dominated the first 20 minutes, controlling midfield with the quartet of Oriol Romeu, Frenkie De Jong, Pedri, and Ilkay Gundogan and defending with plenty of intensity to get the ball back quickly.
Romeu almost opened the scoring five minutes in with a spectacular shot that hit the crossbar, and 10 minutes later the Blaugrana took the lead on a wonderful set piece routine that saw Pedri find Dembele all alone inside the box and the Frenchman fire a rocket into the bottom corner.
Madrid had a chance to level matters almost instantly when Ronald Araujo committed a silly penalty by handling the ball in the area, but Vinicius hit the crossbar and missed from the spot. After coming on in the second half, Lopez fired a rocket into the top corner with his weaker left foot to double Barça’s lead at the death.
The 20-year-old Lopez then finished his incredible cameo with an assist as he played a wonderful pass over the top to Torres, who looped the ball over Thibaut Courtois and scored against an open net for his second goal in two preseason games.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Araujo (Dest 76’), Kounde, Christensen (Eric 28’), Balde (Alonso 76’); Romeu (Fati 76’), De Jong (Abde 76’); Dembele (Raphinha 66’), Pedri (Fermín 66’), Gundogan (Roberto 42’); Lewandowski (Ferran 76’).
Goals: Dembele (15’), Fermín (85’), Ferran (90’+1)
Real Madrid: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy (García 45’); Valverde (Kroos 58’), Tchouameni, Camavinga (Modric 58’); Bellingham (Joselu 73’); Rodrygo (Brahim 83’), Vinicius.