Barcelona beat NY Red Bulls to cap unbeaten US tour
Barcelona's Ousmane Dembele (2nd L) shakes hands with teammembers after scoring a goal during the international friendly football match between the New York Red Bulls and FC Barcelona at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, on July 30, 2022. (Photo by Kena Betancur / AFP)
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Ousmane Dembele and Memphis Depay lifted Barcelona to a 2-0
victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday as the Spanish giants finished
their four-match friendly tour of the United States unbeaten.
French winger Dembele fired Barcelona ahead after 40 minutes
before a sellout crowd of 25,252 at Red Bull Arena.
Depay made it 2-0 in the 87th minute -- five minutes after
the Red Bulls were reduced to 10 men when Daniel Edelman was sent off for a
wild sliding tackle on Pablo Torre.
While newly signed striker Robert Lewandowski remains in
search of his first goal for Barcelona, the club heads back to Spain having
racked up three wins and a draw in four friendlies, Saturday's victory
following a 6-0 win over Inter Miami, a 1-0 triumph over La Liga rivals Real
Madrid and a 2-2 draw with Juventus.
French winger Dembele opened the scoring with his third goal
in two matches. From a pass by Raphinha he unleashed a right-footed blast into
the bottom right corner of Carlos Coronel's net.
Depay struck in the 87th, capitalizing on a Red Bulls
defensive mixup to slot the ball into an empty net.
Lewandowski, signed from Bayern Munich for around 50 million
euros was formally introduced as a Barca player at the start of the tour in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Polish striker was clearly pushing to open his Barcelona
account in the first half, but failed to connect on a spate of attempts.
That included a header over the bar in the 17th minute and a
20th-minute attempt in which he escaped a trio of defenders to unleash a shot
that was also over the bar.
In the 25th minute, Dembele broke free down the right side to
set up Lewandowski, but Coronel easily gathered in his shot. Coronel had to
work harder in the 30th to deflect another attempt from Lewandowski.
A lively Red Bulls side had a smattering of chances, notably
two headers from Sean Nealis that both went wide.
But the hosts, in the midst of an MLS Cup playoff push,
changed their entire 11 for the second half.
A handful of halftime changes for Barcelona didn't include
Lewandowski, but he didn't have any more luck in the second half as substitute
keeper Ryan Meara denied him twice before he departed in the 73rd minute.Barcelona
will conclude their pre-season with a match against Mexico's Pumas UNAM at Camp
Nou next Sunday.


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