Barcelona edge past Elche to claim Joan Gamper Trophy
Antoine Griezmann scored the only goal of the overall game as Barcelona beat promoted side Elche in the Gamper Trophy at Camp Nou on Saturday evening.
The Gamper Trophy may be the Catalan club’s traditional curtain-raiser and the first chance for Barca fans to view their team doing his thing at Camp Nou, but there are still no supporters allowed in the stands due to Covid-19.
New coach Ronald Koeman sent a note to the fans in a video before kick-off, telling them their occurrence was felt and that the team would give everything in all the competitions this year.
Koeman, who left popular midfielder Riqui Puig out of his squad because of this game and has told the 20-year-old he is not in his plans this year, chosen his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation.
In it, Griezmann was the lone striker and the Frenchman fired Barca in the front inside two minutes as Lionel Messi played a low ball to Jordi Alba on the left and the defender cut the ball back to supply the former Atletico attacker a fairly easy finish.
It looked like Barca might try to escape with it after that early strike, but Elche competed well and their goalkeeper Edgar Badia made several super saves.
Badia parried a Lionel Messi free-kick in the first half and in addition denied further efforts from Philippe Coutinho and Ansu Fati.
Fati, making his first appearance under Koeman after injury, also headed just wide in the second half and was penalised for a handball after winning a 50-50 ball with the Elche goalkeeper.
Later, Miralem Pjanic came to make his Barcelona debut in a triple change which also saw Ousmane Dembele and Francisco Trincao introduced.
Dembele came close on a couple of occasions, but saw one shot saved by Badia and another fly well wide, while Trincao was also denied by an inspired stop from the Elche goalkeeper after latching onto a Coutinho through-ball.
Elche barely threatened in the next half, but Bri found himself totally unmarked with nine minutes left and Neto saved Barca’s blushes as he got down to make an excellent save near to his right-hand post to keep his side in front.
There were further attempts from Messi and Pjanic in the closing stages, but Barca needed to be quite happy with a 1-0 win in Koeman’s first game in charge at Camp Nou, before their LaLiga start against Villarreal next weekend.
