Barcelona vs AC Milan, Preseason: Final Score 2-2, Barça finish United States tour with defeat on penalties

Barcelona’s final stop in their preseason tour of the United States ended with a very entertaining 2-2 draw against AC Milan in Tuesday’s friendly in Baltimore, despite a 4-3 defeat on penalties that ended the Blaugrana’s unbeaten streak in prseason. But much more importantly than the result, Hansi Flick’s side once again played an excellent match with and without the ball despite a couple of defensive breakdowns, but were generally the better team and continued to show very good signs under their new manager.

FIRST HALF

Barça made a strong start to the game, dominating the first 10 minutes and creating danger in every way possible: through long sequences of possession starting at the back, with quick counter-attacks after winning the ball back through their pressing, and even with long balls in behind Milan’s high line.

Hansi Flick’s side were poised to take the lead, but two defensive breakdowns in a span of five minutes left them with a two-goal deficit: Christian Pulisic made two runs in behind the defense without any resistance and assisted Luka Jovic for the first goal before scoring himself to give Milan a two-goal advantage after 15 minutes.

Barça didn’t seem too bothered by the sudden turn of events and kept playing their game, with Ilkay Gündogan playing one beautiful pass after another and Marc Casadó constantly finding spaces in midfield to receive the ball and connect the lines. Raphinha and Pau Víctor were always active on the wings, and Álex Valle was a constant threat from right-back.

Barça’s excellent work in and out of possession eventually earned them a goal, as a poor clearance by the Milan defense created a quick counter-attack and Raphinha found Robert Lewandowski at the edge of the box, and the Pole placed the ball into the bottom corner with a beautiful strike to bring Barça back in the game.

The Catalans continued to look more and more dangerous, and had several chances to equalize that were either missed, cleared at the last second by the Milan defense or wasted by poor decision-making. Pau Víctor almost equalized just before halftime, but the young striker was offside and was denied a fourth goal in preseason.

The halftime whistle came to end a very fun first half, with Barça behind but still showing plenty of positive signs. Could they complete the comeback in the second half to finish the tour unbeaten?

SECOND HALF

Hansi Flick made three changes to start the final period, including the preseason debut of Jules Kounde at right-back. Flick also experimented with Raphinha as a number 10 in behind Lewandowski, and reunited the very productive double pivot of Casadó and Marc Bernal.

Barça made another strong start to a half, with even cleaner and more precise passing through the lines and more support from both full-backs to keep attacks going compared to the first half. Their pressing was also on point, suffocating the Milan buildup until they were forced to give the ball back.

Raphinha looked comfortable in a central role, and he had a key part to play in Barça’s equalizer: after a beautiful pass by Marc Bernal to find him through the middle the Brazilian played it through to Pau Víctor, who gave Lewandowski the easiest of tap-ins to make it all square in Baltimore.

That was right at the hour mark, shortly before Flick made a couple of more changes with Iñaki Peña replacing Marc-André ter Stegen in goal and Iñigo Martínez coming on for Clément Lenglet. Milan also made changes of their own, and the game was set up for a fun finish in the last half-hour.

As we moved towards the end of the game, however, Barça’s players became visibly tired from the relentless running they’d done throughout the night, and the forwards started making silly mistakes on the ball that killed promising attacks.

Flick sent on Vitor Roque, Mika Faye and Guille Fernández in the final 10 minutes, and Barça finished the game with a very young side. They remained composed on the ball trying to create chances and relentless with their pressing trying to win it back, but couldn’t create a final opportunity and the final whistle came to end the game all square.

There was still a chance to win it on penalties, however, but Milan won the shootout 4-3 after 12 combined attempts that ended witha miss by Faye. The first “loss” of preseason on penalties means absolutely nothing, and the performance was once again encouraging and impressive for a team still in such an early stage of their development under a new coach and missing so many key starters.

Barça played very well in all three of their preseason games in America, didn’t lose any in 90 minutes, several youngsters got their chance to shine and earn a spot in the first team, and Flick has proven his system can absolutely work at Barça.

The United States tour has been, undoubtedly, a success.