FC Seoul 3–7 FC Barcelona: Goalfest in Korea
FC Barcelona have made it two wins out of two on their Asian Tour, with Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres both claiming braces, and Robert Lewandowski, Andreas Christensen and Gavi getting the others.
Seoul FC scored three goals of their own in a lively fixture, in which we got to see Barça play the kind of dynamic, attacking, risk-taking football that we all know and love. Things are still only warming up for when the really serious stuff starts in August, but from what we witnessed today, things are shaping up very nicely indeed.
Lamine dazzles
The visitors only needed eight minutes to open the scoring. It was Dani Olmo’s tremendous run that started it, followed by a lay-off to Lamine Yamal. The 18-year-old’s strike hit the post but Robert Lewandowski, whose mind always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else’s, was there to meet the rebound and convert from short range.
Just six minutes later, Lamine did get on the scoresheet. Dancing through the Korean defence as if they weren’t even there, he picked his spot from the edge of the area… The home keeper really should have done better, but in went the first Lamine Yamal goal in his new number 10 shirt.
Seoul were utterly overwhelmed, but although it was already looking like the hosts were in for a severe battering, before the first half was over they had managed to get back level.
Seoul hit back
The first Korean goal followed an uncharacteristic error from Lamine, in which the starlet was robbed of the ball by Jin-Su Kim. Albeit from an offside position, Young-Wook Cho collected the pass and pumped his finish past Joan Garcia.
With no VAR in use, the goal stood, and moments before half-time, seasoned Jordanian international Yazan Al Arab foiled Barça’s back line and converted to make it 2-2.
While the home faithful were still rubbing their eyes to make sure they weren’t dreaming, Yamal stepped up to produce some more magic. Again following an Olmo assist, he deftly cut back into position and made the difficult look easy, slotting home his second goal of the day and making sure Barça were back in front in time for the half-time refreshments.
Flying ahead
As in Japan on Sunday, Hansi Flick then rotated his entire XI for the second half, giving further minutes to Roony Bardghji, Jofre Torrents and Marcus Rashford, all of whom are making their debuts on this Asian Tour, while brothers Guille and Toni Fernández were also given minutes on the pitch, the latter coming close to scoring on more than one occasion.
A long range strike from Andreas Christensen wasn’t the source that many fans would have predicted for goal number four. But that’s what we got, the Dane picking his spot and unleashing a thunderbolt, revealing an aspect to his game that Culers have rarely seen until now.
The floodgates had taken some time to open, but now they were gaping wide. Two goals in quick succession from Ferran Torres and Gavi made it 6-2 and as far as the outcome was concerned, the game was over.
Ten goals
Han-Min Jung’s goal for Seoul was purely academic, and all the same, Ferran Torres promptly re-established the four-goal cushion by finishing off some sweet work by a highly active Rashford.
Anyone who questions the entertainment value of preseason friendlies was very much wronged by this one. The 62,000+ fans inside the Seoul World Cup Stadium had been treated to no fewer than ten goals in a thoroughly engaging encounter.
And there’s more to come in Daegu on Monday. That starts at the same time, 7pm in Korea, 1pm CEST.