The 'Egyptian Haaland' brings out pride in Adeyemi's debut with Barça

It was a preseason match, just Barça's second –the first in front of a crowd after the 4-1 victory against CE Europa–, but the tiny St Andrew's Stadium in the Bordesley district of Birmingham was packed to the rafters. Birmingham City FC, a historic English football club that will fight for another year to return to the Premier League, hosted the blaugrana team in the reenactment of a match full of history: both had rivaled in the past in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, with the Catalans beating the English in the two-legged final for the edition played between 1958 and 1960.

The match had almost nothing to do with today's football, with a much more voracious pace and much more physically prepared footballers. In this struggle of teams getting ready for the season's debut, a Barça full of homegrown players drew with the English (2-2). The friendly – with the prize of a trophy– would end up being decided on penalties: Áron Yaakobishvili, from the reserves, saved two spot-kicks, but Roony Bardghji and the young Jordi Pesquer and Brian Fariñas would miss their shots, giving the victory to the locals.

The staging, despite being a preseason test, already made the players pant from early on due to the efforts the match required. Hansi Flick's team, with more than a dozen starters still on vacation or recovering from their respective injuries, such as Raphinha, Fermín, or Balde, wanted to impose their talent. In front, however, they found a team that came out to bite them high up from the first minute, and as long as their strength held.

Barça did not manage to dominate the duel against the impetus – and the direct football – of the locals, accompanied by almost 30,000 souls willing to have a good time with theirs. The Madrid player Jude Bellingham also did not want to miss the opportunity and was present in the box of the club where he trained as a footballer and became known to the elite. With several novelties in the starting eleven compared to the friendly against Europa, among them Karim Adeyemi, who debuted on the right wing, the Blaugranas tried to bite. First, with a couple of solo ventures by the German forward that ended without much danger.

The closest to scoring while the score remained unchanged was Andreas Christensen, who wants to leave injuries behind (and his mental fear of getting injured). With a long-range shot that grazed the post, the Dane, with the captain's armband, made the first shot of the match. Barça had the ball and seemed determined to change the score, but in the end, the locals would do it. After half an hour of play, August Priske beat Jofre Torrents in the jump to impose himself with a good header against Wojciech Szczesny (1-0, 31').

Hamza Abdelkarim, goal scorer

The local goal brought out the pride in a Barça full of young players who love the crest, like Marc Bernal, who after a great oriented control connected at the edge of the box with Hamza Abdelkarim who, more cunning and faster than his defender Christop Klarer, earned a penalty. The 18-year-old Egyptian forward wanted to take responsibility for taking the penalty and did not miss, with a powerful and well-placed shot that deceived goalkeeper James Beadle just before halftime (1-1, 42'). The locals could have taken the lead again, after a set-piece play in which Szczesny shone against Tomoki Iwata's header.

In the second half, Birmingham's high press began to wane and Barça not only dominated possession convincingly but also controlled the game. However, the most important thing was missing: creating danger and seeing the goal. Flick made four substitutions at once, bringing on Roony for a subdued Adeyemi. The Swedish winger, who wants to earn his continuity at Barça, showed why he was signed last season. A diagonal from the right towards the inside, a crisp shot from the edge of the box and a deflection from Beadle's outstretched hand that Abdelkarim, the Egyptian and World Cup player, did not waste to score his brace (1-2', 60'). the Egyptian Haaland and World Cup player, to score his brace (1-2', 60').

An hour into the game, Flick made a string of changes again – and tests, like putting Héctor Fort at centre-back – and the home team took advantage. Again making good use of aerial play, although this time from a set-piece, the home team exploited the Blaugrana's defensive weakness to equalize. The former Girona player, Jhon Solís, collected a loose ball in the heart of the area to beat Áron Yaakobishvili, who had replaced Szczesny (2-2, 68').

The draw spurred the home team on, who came close to a third with a shot that grazed Alex Cochrane's crossbar. The final minutes, with a flurry of changes on both sides, led to an entertaining but imprecise finish with no more goals, although Barça tried the most, with daring Roony and Álex González making goalkeeper Beadle shine. In the penalties, the English team prevailed.