Seoul 3-7 Barcelona: Yamal & Ferran score brace; RL9, Christensen & Gavi net

Barcelona show up in South Korea and beat Seoul 7-3.

Match Report

Barcelona have made two wins out of two to begin their preseason tour of Asia thanks to a dominant 7-3 victory over FC Seoul at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in South Korea on Thursday. 

FIRST HALF

Lewandowski scored a very easy tap-in after a shot from Lamine Yamal hit the post and came back to the Pole, and Yamal himself got in the action with a gorgeous strike from outside the box. Barça had a two-goal lead after just 15 minutes, and were by far the better team from the get-go.

They found it so easy, in fact, that they took their foot off the gas and allowed Seoul to have some joy on the ball and the hosts began to find spaces in behind Barça’s high line. The Catalans’ offside trap worked well, but they still allowed the hosts to score as Yamal lost the ball at the edge of his own box and a quick cross found (a clearly offside) Cho who fired it home off the bar.

Both teams began suffering from the hot and humid conditions towards the end of the period and the pace of play dropped dramatically, but there was still time for quite a bit of drama and entertainment just before halftime.

It all began with a fantastic solo run by Raphinha down the left wing and a pass by the Brazilian that should have become an assist for Dani Olmo, but the Spaniard dragged his shot just wide and missed a big chance. Immediately after that, Seoul center-back Al-Arab ventured forward and fired a nice shot with his left foot into the net to score the equalizer and shock the entire crowd.

But Olmo redeemed himself shortly after with a beautiful through ball to find Yamal, whose last contribution of the night was a disgusting dribble move that literally sent his defender flying before Lamine took another touch and fired a beauty into the far corner. It was an amazing goal to end an amazing two-minute sequence, and it was a fitting end to a fun first half in Seoul.

SECOND HALF

Flick changed his entire XI to begin the second half, going with pretty much the same team of reserves and youngsters that played well together the second half against Vissel Kobe. And that group started well again in this one, with Marcus Rashford direct and dangerous again, Gavi looking more like himself, and Andreas Christensen scoring a sensational goal with a rocket from 30 yards to restore Barça’s two-goal lead.

Jofre Torrents was impressive once again at left-back, making solid runs and delivering excellent passes, and one of those passes turned into an assist for Ferran Torres, who showed excellent composure inside the box to sit down his defender and find the net to triple Barça’s advantage with 15 minutes to go. Two minutes after that Gavi scored an absolutely filthy goal with a brilliant spin and finish inside the box, and the Catalans turned the win into a rout.

Flick gave two more players a run in the final 15 minutes as Guille and Toni Fernández came on for Gavi and Roony Bardghji, and the two cousins were active and had some good moments on the ball in their limited time on the pitch.

Seoul did very little to bother the Barça defense in the second half but still managed to give the crowd something to cheer with five minutes to go when Jung got behind the defense on the counter and scored a nice goal to get the hosts on the board for a third time on the night.

Barça were not done, however, and Rashford got his first assist as a Blaugrana with a nice through ball in between two defenders to find Ferran, who passed the ball into the bottom corner to score Barça’s seventh of the night.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

3' Pedri almost scores!

5' That is a CLEAR penalty on Lamine Yamal!

8' Lewandowski is there to score the rebound!! Seoul 0-1 Barcelona

15' This is the position Yamal shot! Seoul 0-2 Barcelona

22' Raphinha's shot wide out

26' Young-wook Cho scores from a cross. Seoul 1-2 Barcelona

44' Highlight from Seoul vs Barcelona

46' GOAL! Seoul 2-2 Barcelona (Yazan Al-Arab)

48' GOAL! Seoul 2-3 Barcelona (Lamine Yamal)

51' Match Event for Seoul vs Barcelona

55' Gavi assists, Christensen nets stunning long-range strike! Seoul 2-4 Barcelona

63' What a save from Szczesny

74' Ferran beats his marker and scores! Seoul 2-5 Barcelona

76' Martín's through ball sets up Gavi to score Seoul 2-6 Barcelona

86' Goal FC Seoul. Goal Han Ming Jung! Seoul 3-6 Barcelona

89' Rashford assists, Ferran Torres scores his second goal! Seoul 3-7 Barcelona

Line-ups

Seoul XI: Jin-su Kim, Lingard, Moon Seon-Min, Hyeon-mu Kang, Seung-mo Lee, Tae-wook Jeong, Young-wook Cho, Anderson Oliveira, Soo-il Park, Yazan Al-Arab, Seung-won Jeong

Subs: Marko Dugandzic, Cheol-won Choi, Lucas Silva, Jun Choi, Han-min Jung, Seong-hun Park, Jang Han-gyeol Park, Joon-seob Im, Do-yoon Hwang, Ju-hyeok Kang, Jee-won Kim, Hyun-seo Bae

Barcelona XI: Lewandowski, Olmo, De Jong, Raphinha, Kounde, Araujo, Pedri, Joan García, Balde, Yamal, Cubarsi

Subs: Szczesny, I. Martinez, Christensen, Pena, Rashford, Ferran Torres, Eric Garcia, Casado, Gavi, Fermín López, Roony Bardghji, Gerard Martín, Héctor Fort, Diego Kochen, Dro Fernández, Toni Fernández, Guille Fernández, Jofre Torrents