Barca, Juventus settle for draw in highly entertaining pre-season encounter

By Ibrahim Sulaiman

Barcelona continued their unbeaten run in their 2022 pre-season but failed to win their fourth game in a row as Juventus held them to a 2-2 draw at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.

Due to the high temperature of the summer, both teams had a really slow start in the first half of the game. Barca, as expected, had most of the possession but failed to produce any chances.

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Juve on the other hand, produced a few good efforts on the counter.

Around the half hour mark, both teams took a cooling break after which Barca sprung back to life. French national, Ousmane Dembele led the way and began to work his magic.

At the 34th minute, Dembele opened the scoresheet after an impressive solo run through the Juve defense.

Just five minutes later, Moise Kean came up with an equalizer with a tap-in goal for Juventus but Dembele needed just less than a minute to net another goal to make it 2-1 for Barca, after another incredible dribbling run.

And after 45 minutes, the game was fully alive, which had spectators with high hopes for the second half.

The second half came with a strong start for Juventus who held a high line to put pressure on Barca’s possession game.

The high press led to a mistake from make-shift centre back Frenkie De Jong who lost possession around Barca 18-yard box, with Moise Kean there to capitalize and net his second goal of the night.

The score remained 2-2 until the end, although it was not short of goal opportunities for both teams. With two different efforts from Raphinha and Ansu Fati hitting the woodwork as they tried to put Barca ahead.

The final whistle brought the game to an end and also an end to Barca’s winning run in their preseason. Due to the high temperatures, both teams had to make many substitutions to avoid player injuries. A game like this is mostly considered as just a warm up to improve players’ fitness levels.

Barcelona’s final match comes on the 31st of July against New York Red Bulls as Juve will be preparing for their game against Real Madrid on the same day which will mark the end of the preseason tour in the USA.