Just hours after bidding farewell to arguably the greatest player in their club history, Barcelona registered a comfortable 3-0 victory against Juventus in the Joan Gamper Trophy, a pre-season invitational competition hosted by the Catalan club, on Sunday.

Although early days, Memphis Depay yet again looked ready for the season ahead as he opened the scoring for Barcelona with a sharp finish just after three minutes. While the club and all the players shared an extremely emotional day after bidding farewell to Lionel Messi after 21 long years, their performance on the field was nuanced, as they dominated largely possession.

Manager Ronald Koeman opted for a formidable starting eleven, with the likes of Depay, Antoine Griezmann and Martin Braithwaite starting up front. Ronald Araujo and Gerard Pique formed the centre-back pairing while Neto started in goal. Austrian midfielder Yusuf Demir, 18, started for Barcelona. He made an instant impact as he provided the assist for Depay’s goal.

After having the early lead, Barcelona were mostly comfortable in possession, barring few shots from Cristiano Ronaldo and Federico Berandeschi. 

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Coming out into the second half with a slender lead, Barcelona keeper Neto was challenged early on by a Federico Chiesa shot. But the Catalan club soon doubled their lead in the 57th-minute, when Braithwaite headed home a corner from none other than Depay.   

The Dutch forward kept pegging back the Juventus defense. New boss Massimiliano Allegri will have to sort out the defensive errors, quickly before the season commences.   

Soon after the second goal, Koeman made wholesale changes as he brought on few players from La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy. But the Catalan giants would go on to another goal through Riqui Puig at the 90th minute.