After more than one month without football, FC Barcelona are finally back in action tonight, clashing with Italian giants Juventus. For the joy of the eager Culer fanbase, the Blaugranas begin their pre-season tour in the United States, meeting the Old Lady in the first encounter of the 4-game tour before returning home to conclude the preparations for the start of the new season.
Barca News Network brings you three talking points before the friendly match against Juventus, which will be played in the American football team San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
- 1. An embattled opposition
Juventus had a rollercoaster of a season last term, which saw them being punished twice by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) during the campaign. Of course, their penalization was rightful in light of them being found guilty of ‘financial irregularities’ and ‘false accounting’, however, the manner in which the penalties were given was nothing short of revolting.
Point deduction is not a unique form of punishment, especially in the historically scandalous atmosphere of Italian football, however, the fact that the initial 15-point deduction was annuled just to be reinstated as 10 later on is unprecedented, putting Juventus up to a practically impossible task to clinch a European spot for next season with just 3 games to go.
With that, the Bianconeri dropped from second to seventh in a second, strangely enough, on a matchday afternoon which they went on to lose 4-1 to Empoli, killing off their Champions League dreams definitively. Without European football, Giuntoli and Co. will have a tough time managing the squad and providing a competitive roster to Allegri’s disposal.
The Italian team is in the middle of a serious revamp, with 5 players including Ángel di María and Juan Cuadrado already leaving the team while others such as Dušan Vlahović, Leonardo Bonucci, or Arthur Melo also on the verge of departing Turin. On the other end, they made the signing of Locatelli, Milik, and Kean permanent, with Timothy Weah also joining from Lille.
- 2. Debut parade
Turning towards the Barcelona camp, there are multiple new faces in the squad compared to last season’s roster. First of all, the former Manchester City captain İlkay Gündoğan joined the Catalans on a free transfer from the fresh UCL winners, whereas Iñigo Martínez arrived from Bilbao, also with the letter of freedom.
Both can make their debuts in the garnet and blue colors tonight, unlike the third signing of the Azulgrana club, namely Oriol Romeu. The veteran Spanish midfielder, who was raised at the club’s renowned academy La Masia, has now re-joined his boyhood club from Girona and is eager to don the Blaugrana once again, proving his worth to the coach and the fans alike.
In plus, there are several youth players who traveled with the senior squad to the United States, such as Marc Casadó, Lamine Yamal, Aleix Garrido, Ander Astralaga, Fermín López, Álex Valle, and Mikayil Faye. While the former three players have already made their first team debut, the latter quartet has the opportunity to debut among the Blaugrana seniors.
3. First for ones, last for others?
In their quest to reinforce the squad and made it more competitive to achieve the desired results, Barcelona are also trying to get rid of some of the unwanted players in order to free up space in the salary cap and create room for further operations within the financial fair play margins.
Some of these players haven’t even traveled with the squad to America, such as Álex Collado who is expected to leave the club in the summer, Nico González who will join Porto imminently as well as Pablo Torre who has already left to Girona on loan.
However, there are also some players who the club could offload permanently, and they will compete in the US tour with their future hanging in the air. Reportedly Franck Kessié, Clément Lenglet, Sergiño Dest, Eric García, and Ferrán Torres are all among the candidates to leave the club this summer, and they might play one of – if not their very – last game for FC Barcelona.
