Match Preview: FC Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur

Match Preview: FC Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur

The Rose Bowl, Pasadena is the venue for the first game of the Barça preseason, of the US Tour and of the team's involvement in the International Champions Cup

The wait is over! There’s been plenty going on off the pitch this summer, not to mention a World Cup in Russia, but the 2018/19 season at FC Barcelona really gets started today, as the Liga and Copa del Rey double winners open the preseason with a friendly against the side that finished third in the Premiership last season, Tottenham Hotspur.

The venue is the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, for the first of three games that the Catalans will be playing in the United States, all part of the 2018 International Champions Cup – with games against Italian giants Roma and Milan to come later this week.

It's an 8.05pm kick off local time, and this guide will help you to work out what time it starts in your part of the world. Wherever you are, it's not going to be the kind of time you usually sit down to watch a Barça game! 

Possible debuts

One of the big questions surrounding the game is whether Ernesto Valverde will give us our first glimpses of new signings Arthur, Clement Lenglet and Malcom in action in the blaugrana jersey.

With the Barça players that featured at the World Cup still having a well-earned break, there are 13 players from Barça B in the squad that crossed the Atlantic, and the game presents a wonderful opportunity for some of those to get some first team experience too.

Barça and Spurs have only met once before in a competitive fixture, in the semi-finals of the 1982 European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Their last meeting of any kind was at the Wembley Cup in 2009, which ended 1-1 after Bojan Krkić’s opener was cancelled out late by Jake Livermore. Click on the video above for highlights of that match.

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