One cold and one hot from Barça in the triangular in Udine

BarcelonaIn the first edition of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup, held at the Bluenery Friuli Stadium in Udine (Italy), Barça participated in a football triangular for the first time in 24 years. The Blaugrana defeated Nottingham Forest (1-0), who finished sixteenth in the Premier League last season - and who this season have lost their best player: Elliot Anderson, for whom Manchester City paid 135 million euros - but lost to the hosts, Udinese (1-0). The Italians won both their matches, as before facing Barça they had already beaten the English by the same score (1-0).

In the third pre-season friendly, Raphinha wore the captain's armband and felt like a footballer again after being injured with Brazil during the World Cup. The Brazilian started from the left wing, in an attack completed by Hamza Abdelkarim, scorer of a brace against Birmingham City a week ago, and Karim Adeyemi, wide on the right wing. The Blaugrana signing continues his adaptation and once again delivered a discreet performance.

The German coach also once again trusted Marc Bernal as a pivot, as well as Xavi Espart, who continues to earn his place in the first team from the right-back position. In the heart of the defense, the center-back pairing was confirmed by Andreas Christensen and Gerard Martín. Meanwhile, among the main novelties, Jordi Pesquer stood out at left-back and Brian Fariñas, alongside Bernal and Fermín López in midfield against Nottingham. The Galician player from the reserve team, whose move to Girona was halted by Hansi Flick, had the clearest chance for the Blaugrana with the score still at 0-0, with a low shot that hit the post from the edge of the box.

The reality, however, is that until Raphinha's goal, the main chances were for the English against a Barça that was giving too many facilities to their rival. Igor Jesus, the most insistent of Nottingham, sent a close-range shot over the crossbar; Morgan Gibbs-White hit the post after a loss by Adeyemi and Wojciech Szczęsny had to get to work against Jesus a few minutes before Fermín provoked the penalty for handball by Nikola Milenković. The penalty would mean Raphinha's goal.

Jesse Bisiwu's debut

After changing kits -from the radioactive orange to the usual blaugrana-, the blaugrana team faced Udinese with only two new faces from the start: Ebrima Tunkara, the youngest in the squad at just 16 years old, and Shane Kluivert. The Gambian replaced Fermín López and the son of the iconic Dutch forward Patrick Kluivert rested Raphinha.

Adeyemi went close to scoring against the Italians, but his shot was weak after a good pass from Fariñas. Before that, Tunkara, a jewel from the academy whom the coach is closely monitoring despite his youth, had tried. A quarter of an hour into the match against Udinese, Flick again moved the bench: Balde, Orian Goren -another talent to consider, at just 17 years old-, Hèctor Fort, center-back Álvaro Cortés -the other strong candidate to stay in the first team, like Xavi Espart- and debutant Jesse Bisiwu, who joined just a week ago from Bruges, took to the field.

Despite the string of new faces, Flick continued to trust Adeyemi, who would end up playing 73 minutes (like Christensen and Bernal) before the last round of substitutions. With many young faces and only three first-team players in the starting eleven -Alejandro Balde, who ended up as captain, Héctor Fort and Szczęsny, who would play the full 90 minutes-, the blaugranes absolutely dominated possession of the ball against Udinese, but lacked attacking threat. They would end up paying for it.

On the other hand, with very little, Gueye almost scored for the Italians from a set-piece, one of the team's strengths this preseason. And, in the last minute of regular time, in a defense-attack transition, Vakoun Bayo finished with great composure and accuracy past the Polish Barça goalkeeper in an action where Tommy Marquès, who played center-back despite being a defensive midfielder, was weak.