Image: ESPN.
Barcelona played yet another marvelous game when they edged past Italian side AS Roma 3-0 in the traditional Joan Gamper trophy pre-season match at Camp Nou on Wednesday. This comes as Barcelona are well on their way to facing Sevilla in the European Super Cup next Tuesday and with the return of Claudio Bravo to training on Monday, Luis Enrique seems to have his first team squad back after the Summer break. In the 25th minute Neymar opened the scoring from close range after a cross from Messi and a wonderful touch by Jeremy Mathieu.
Despite the game being a friendly, things got heated when an off-the ball incident saw Messi lashing out at the AS Roma and French international defender Yanga-Mbiwa. Messi grabbed him by the throat and headbutted him and the Argentine was lucky not to get a red card from the referee. During the incident Messi looked furious and could not contain his anger despite having a reputation of being the most disciplined player who always keeps cool in heated situations. Luckily for him the separated the two and the Argentine got off with a slap on the wrist when the referee gave them both a yellow card.
15 minutes later Messi came back to cause to cause more problems for the Italian side, this time doing what he is known best for as he doubled the lead for his side after a Neymar assist. The pair returned late from training following the COPA America and were taken out in the second half for rest after proving their form to coach Luis Enrique. Ivan Rakitic got a third in the 65th minute with a powerful shot to wrap up the game for the Catalans.
It seems the trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez who hit 122 goals between them last season still lives on ahead of the European Super cup, Spanish Super cup and La Liga season which starts on the 23rd of August when they meet Athletic Bilbao.
