Barça conceded their first defeat of the preseason on Wednesday against the much more popular Austrian Red Bull Salzburg (2-1) with a goal in the last play of the game.
The Dutch coach Ronald Koeman was surprised at the beginning, under a blanket of water, with the return to his favorite system in the second half of last season, the 5-3-2, with his compatriot Frenkie de Jong as the axis of the rear to provide criteria for the ball exit.
But nevertheless, it was Salzburg that dominated possession in the first five minutes, until the Barça footballers joined the drawing.
The first successful ball out, in the 7th minute, it caused a great chance for the Dutch Memphis Depay a pass from Jordi Alba, and the back corner kick was finished off by the Uruguayan Ronald Araújo near the door.
The double occasion appeased the energy of an aggressive Red Bull Salzburg and increased the dominance of Barça, clinging to Sergio Busquets as a compass with and without the ball, while Memphis Depay and the French Antoine Griezmann dodged the spaces in attack and led the pressure.
The intensity of the Austrian team once again blocked Barcelona, as seen in the 24th minute on a very clear occasion from the locals. Jordi Alba, cornered facing his own goal, wanted to give the ball to the Brazilian goalkeeper Neto, but an attacker cut the pass and left it to the Swiss Noah Okafor so that he failed to empty goal.
The next big chance of the match was in the boots of Depay, who in the 34th minute made a masterful reversal in the vertex of the area and, with little angle, defined by licking the long stick of the German goalkeeper Nico Mantl.
The Croatian, Luka Sucic, just three minutes before the break, impaled a ball with a bounce from outside the area and burst the net of Neto thanks, too, to a little detour on De Jong’s hip.
Koeman waited for game time to make his first substitutions and, along with them, he regained the 4-3-3 by lining up Danish Martin Braithwaite as nine for the first time this preseason.
Another of those who entered was the young Alejandro Balde, who showed his self-confidence in the 68th minute with a whiplash from 25 meters that the goalkeeper managed to clear at the last minute.
Barcelona pressed the accelerator in the last minutes of the game and found the prize in a most fortunate action. The American Sergiño Dest, in the 82nd minute, shot from the edge of the area, his shot bounced off a defender first and Braithwaite’s hip later, with the fortune that the rejection of the Dane found the door.
After the tie, Salzburg returned to the charge and in 90, in the last play of the match, Aaronson scored the winning goal when he took advantage of a rebound from the post to the delirium of the 29,520 spectators that filled the stands.
Data sheet:
Red Bull Salzburg: Manti; Ludewig, Onguene, Woeber, Ulmer; Sucic, Capaldo, Bernede, Camara; Okafor and Adeyemi.
They also played: Adamu, Junuzovic, Kristensen, Diambou, Guindo, Piatowski, Solet, Aaronson, Seiwald, Sesko.
1 – Barcelona: Net; Dest, Araújo, De Jong, Lenglet, Jordi Alba; Nico González, Sergio Busquets, Gavi; De Jong and Griezmann.
They also played: Braitwhaite, Sergi Roberto, Arnau Comas, Balde, Demir, Umtiti and Riqui Puig
Goals: 1-0: Sucic, min. 37. 1-1: Braithwaite, min. 82. 2-1: Aaronson, min. 90.
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