Five talking points from the Gamper

Five talking points from the Gamper

Conclusions following the 1-0 defeat of Elche in Saturday's Joan Gamper Trophy

With the preseason over and the official match calendar just a week away, we pick five of the biggest points of discussion to arise from the Joan Gamper encounter on Saturday:

Full house

Barça have played three preseason games and have won them all. They beat both Gimnàstic Tarragona and Girona by the same scoreline, 3-1, and followed those two local derbies with a 1-0 victory against Elche in the Gamper. Three out of three!

Pjanic makes debut

Miralem Pjanic has played his first game in his new jersey. The Bosnian midfielder came on for the final half hour against Elche, linking up with Frenkie de Jong and giving plenty of hints of the great things to come. Pedri, Trincao and Ansu also got to make their Gamper debuts, and for all but the latter it was also their first senior game at Camp Nou.

Ansu back

Ansu Fati missed the first two preseason games through injury, but he was back today and played some great football. In over an hour on the field before being replaced by Dembélé, the teenager showed skill, took on players with his devastating dribbling and set up chances both for himself and the players around him.

Two goals apiece

Antoine Griezmann scored his second goal of the preseason today, meaning that he ties with Philippe Coutinho and Leo Messi for the honour of top goalscorer of the preseason. Ousmane Dembélé was the other preseason goalscorer, and the first.

24 players

Ronald Koeman, using his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, used the following players in the three matches: Neto, Iñaki Peña, Sergi Roberto, Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Araujo, Cuenca, Jordi Alba, Junior Firpo, Sergio Busquets, De Jong, Pjanic, Aleñá, Riqui Puig, Coutinho, Pedri, Trincao, Dembélé, Leo Messi, Ansu Fati, Konrad, Griezmann and Braithwaite.

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