Barcelona vs. Internacional – Audi Cup – Match Report
Barcelona faced Internacional in the Audi Cup semi final. Both the teams played in Bayern Munich’s home stadium, the Allianz Arena – the stadium where the UEFA Champions League final for the next season is going to take place.
Josep Guardiola decided to field a relatively second team. On the other hand, the Internacional coach, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Osmar-c28809 Loss also played his second choice team.
While Victor Valdes, Andres Iniesta, Seydou Kieta, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-Busquets-c33048 and Andres Iniesta were the only few players from the first team; Josep Guardiola played a team which mostly had Barca B or the reserve players.
The players mentioned above were joined by Thiago Alcantara, Riverola, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maxwell-c25051, Afellay, Soriano, Andreu Fontas and Cuecna.
On the other hand, Internacional played http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrezinho-c5957 and Damiao.
The European Champions needed to go through a penalty shootout in order to win the match 4-2 after both the teams failed to finish the game off. The 90 minutes of the game saw four goals – two being scored from both the teams.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Internacional-c39573 goal stopper as he received the ball
from Sergio Busquets.
It was http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604’s first goal of the pre season and it was Thiago Alcantara to put his name on the scoring list for the Spanish Champions.
Internacional were mostly chasing shadows in the first half. Barcelona had most of the ball possession and it was hard for the Brazilians to take advantage with the ball not being at their feet.
Andres Iniesta and Thiago Alcantara were schooling the Internacional midfield and soon http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ibrahim-Afellay-c16547 involved himself as well. The Dutch youngster stepped up and struck the post during the 17th minute.
The first half ended with Barcelona winning the game 1-0. However, the second half saw a lot of changes being made by Josep Guardiola and while the team was still adjusting with the new players, Internacional scored the equalizer.
A clearance from Pinto wasn’t enough and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nei-c27459 was the one who moved forward and scored the equalizing goal.
Soon, another clearance from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pinto-c30032 almost helped Internacional take the lead as Eric Abidal made a goal line save.
However, the substituted youngster http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Santos-c32532 scored a goal during the 63rd minute to give Barcelona a goal’s lead. It was Carmona who assisted him from outside of the box and Santos took his time on the ball to find the back of the net.
Internacional scored an equalizer only 6 minutes before the end of the game and it was Leandro who tapped in a corner kick to take the match onto penalties.
A bit of luck helped Barcelona win the game as all of the players, except Jeffren Suarez, managed to plant the penalties into the back of the net. On the other hand, Leandro and Ze Maria shot their penalties wide and Barcelona won the game 4-2 on penalties.
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