IN SPORT.ES
Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets were the unlikely scorers as Barcelona beat Napoli 2-1 in Miami on Wednesday.
Busquets opened the scoring the first half and Rakitic scored the winner 10 minutes from time after a Samuel Umtiti own goal had levelled the scores.
The two teams meet again in Saturday in Ann Arbor in the second leg of this inaugural La Liga-Serie A cup.
Ernesto Valverde named a mixed team. Neto started in goal, Moussa Wague, Jean-Clair Todibo and Junior Firpo, making his Barca debut, were part of the back four and B team players Riqui Puig and Carles Perez also started.
There was no shortage of chances. Antoine Griezmann had the first shot on target before Luis Suarez fired over after more good work from the Frenchman.
Napoli then got on top, with Neto in great from. The goalkeeper kept out Lorenzo Insigne and then Dries Mertens. Mertens then missed the target with two decent chances.
Carles Perez and Moussa Wague had half chances for Barca before Busquets opened the scoring. The midfielder finished like a No.9 from the edge of the box after good work from Junior and Puig.
Napoli replied before the break, though, when Umtiti turned home Jose Callejon's shot.
There were a ton of chances in the second half. Abel Ruiz and Rafinha missed for Barca, while Arkadiusz Milik wasted Napoli's best openings.
Ousmane Dembele came on for a good cameo, too, coming close to scoring, even hitting the post, but it was Rakitic who fired in the winner.