Hansi Flick suffered his first defeat as Barcelona manager in a pre-season friendly against AC Milan. AC Milan handed Barcelona their first defeat in preseason, beating them 4-3 via penalty shootouts. The Serie A side raced to a 2-0 lead, thanks to goals from Luka Jovic and Christian Pulisic. Barcelona clawed back thanks to a Robert Lewandowski brace but eventually lost on penalty shootouts.....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
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Typical of Hansi Flick’s system, Barcelona pressed high from the jump. This left ankle space behind their backline, and AC Milan, with switches to Rafael Leao, sought to exploit this, and they had success early on.
The first goal, however, came through the right flank, when Samuel Chukwueze intelligently slipped in Christian Pulisic. The American then squared the ball to Luka Jovic, who tapped into an empty net.
Leao was indefensible on the opposite flank and in the 15th minute, he found the precision he had lacked all game, finding Pulisic, who finished brilliantly past Marc Andre Ter Stegen.
Robert Lewandowski finally found his shooting boots in preseason, scoring his first goal of the tour in the 22nd minute with a brilliant finish after he was set up by Raphinha.
Barcelona were much improved in the second half, dominating offensively and limiting AC Milan’s presence in their goal area. Lewandowski finished off a sweeping team move in the 55th minute of the game to hand the Blaugrana an equaliser.
Hansi Flick’s side pressed for the winner, but Milan held on and entered penalties. Both sides missed two of their initial five attempts. Kevin Zeroli scored Milan’s sixth and Mikayil Faye missed as Barcelona fell to their first defeat in preseason.
