Eurosport - Thu, 20 Aug 07:17:00 2009
Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his debut for Barcelona in the second half of their 1-0 defeat by Manchester City in the Joan Gamper Trophy at the Nou Camp.
With City already ahead after Bulgarian Martin Petrov raced clear and finished coolly past reserve Barca keeper Jose Manuel Pinto just before the half hour, Ibrahimovic came on at the break in the Catalans' traditional season curtain-raiser.
The former Inter Milan striker, wearing protection on the fractured hand that kept him out of Sunday's Spanish Super Cup first-leg win over Athletic Bilbao, was given a warm reception as he set about trying to produce an equaliser.
After linking well several times with Lionel Messi, he had a low volley well saved by City goalkeeper Shay Given in the 73rd minute and the Irishman kept out the Swede's crisp long-range effort shortly after.
Argentina forward Messi struck a shot against the post in the final moments but City held on to win at a packed and sultry Nou Camp.
Barca coach Pep Guardiola included just two of the players -- Carles Puyol and Yaya Toure -- who featured in their Champions League final win over Manchester United in May in his starting line-up.
Carlos Tevez started for big-spending City but fellow summer signing Emmanuel Adebayor and Robinho did not play.
It was a successful return to the Nou Camp for City manager Mark Hughes, who spent a season with Barca in the mid-1980s, scoring four goals in 28 matches.
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see getachew44 says
thats end of pep's era
just like rekard and van gaal
all i can say fu@k barca we will see this year
@ #12 emiliano m, first of all Barca lost to a stronger team, and lot with their youth players, on the other hand madSHIT lost to a very weak team, who is unheard of, and madrid had all their stars playing, only kaka was missing, diving diva ronaldo was there, benzema was there, grandpa raul was there, argentinian want to be - higuain was there, and glass man robben was there, and you still lost and not only lost, but were dominated by the other team, where as Barca, they completly dominated man city, it's just that man city a goal against youth players, and they were defending for their lives.
@ #14 milton, you are an idiot. First of all, ronaldo and kaka are "has been" that means they have been good but no longer are good. And for your information. Messi is Way billion time better than diving diva ronaldo. Second, don't even compare alonso to Xavi, alonso is not even close to Xavi. Xavi is a better player, has better passes, and the facts show that Xavi is a Better player. Who played better in the Euro 2008, who was the best player in the Euro 2008, and who is included to be nominated in the UEFA best midfielder, and the answer is Xavi with a "v" and not a "b". And for Benzema, he is nowhere near close to Ibra. Ibra is a more complete player than benzema, he is faster, stronger, more technical, better freekicks, better shots. The only thing is that benzema is younger, but so what, we have Bojan and Pedro who are young and good. And for princess kaka, well there is Iniesta who is by far way better player than him. So don't look at the value that madSHIT payed for their players, that don't mean nothing, because If Barca were to sell their players, they would cost at least 3 times more than madSHIT player.
milton
and benzema aint a proven goal scorer in that league??
milton
the last time ronaldo and messi went head to head ronaldo played s@@t and messi finished off the game..
and who will cover kaka? ronaldo will i think coz he wont let any other f@@@@r have the ball and plus the fact barca are an established team real aint...so go on ronaldo he couldnt get his name on the score sheet against dortmund..he will wither in the spanish league..WATCH..and dont forget iniesta
oh by the way, nobody talks about the 5 goal hammering of borussia dortmund by madrid last night...worried and jealous heh?
donna:
if indeed ronaldo gets in to a tug of war with messi, then they cancel each other out...then who do barca have xavi...cancelled out by alonso...ibrahimovic, no show...leave benzema and kaka to do all the damage...one a ballon d'or winner, the other, most likely the most fearsome young striker of his generation, both having big tallies to their goal scoring record...i.e. proven credibility and dependability...so who else have barca got?...dani alves, who albeit good is not gonna score three goals in a game...so you see, real will step above barca whether you sore losers out there like to admit it or not...
too much money, too much talent, way more prestige... VAMOS MADRID!!!!
bitter reds.get used to losing
i hate barca supporters when real lost in a friendly it was a big thing and when barca lost it was a full team so fu@king what you still lost to team that are not good, barca are not going win nothing this year as they are sh@t
GO ON CITY-LOVE YOU FOREVER
WELL DONE BURNLEY,,YOU THRASHED THE RED SKIP RATS
YOUR GONNA WIN $UCK ALL RED SCUM
Barca did not have their full team out, but then again neither did City, as they played some youth team members and second stringers. You cannot outplay Barca at Football( Man U learnt that lesson) so City set the stall on a 4-5-1, sat deep and asked the question. Barca could not answer and there in lies the result!! Good workout and hopefully no injury worries, mind you most of the first teamers were rested :-)
yeh yeh keep on justifing the defeat to city. a loss is a loss no matter what. No one plays to loose, so spare me the crying and moaning about not playing their best and stuff. Real is gonna hurt barca really bad this season.
I dont think either team play for real. Messi has just came back from injury, and he didn't start the game. Pinto was playing instead of Valdes. Ibra had a protective cover on his hand and only played in the second half. And I think both Iniesta and Marquez are still out on injury. Adebayor and Robinho weren't playing.
The question is, what the heck was ManCity doing in Spain for a meaningless game when the EPL started 2 weeks ago?
real madrid to beat barca...lol wat a joke..not if ronaldo gets into a tuggin war with messi again then he will just look s@@t again
real madrid to beat barca...lol wat a joke..not if ronaldo gets into a tuggin war with messi again then he will just look s@@t again
you watch real madrid will fall flat on there faces this season...bet they dont win nothing spent all that money for nothing...lmao
Barca played at 20-30 % of their power last night - the most important was not to get somone of the stars injured again - as simply as that. Regarding Real (@#$%) - it will be found out who is superior in November 2009. At least season in Spain will be a bit more interesting than last season. It's not so interesting to be 15 points ahead of white shirts :-) It will be more interesting to be 25 points ahead of the new white shirts with so much money spent - hahaha.
well funny enough i did say to all those idiots i bet you man city would win...a barca team with messi aparantly world class could not beat a so called lesser team in man c..lol shame all the idiots out there..
bad sign, Pep.
el real will crush you.
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