Barcelona secured a 2-0 win against Vissel Kobe on Saturday to lift the Rakuten Cup in their last pre-season match in Japan. Three former Barcelona players were in action for Vissel Kobe and it was Andrés Iniesta who came closest to breaking the deadlock when a long-range effort flew past Marc-André ter Stegen’s far post, while Riqui Puig wasted a golden chance for the visitors at the other end of the pitch. Iniesta came close once again in the latter stages of the first half, while goalkeeper Daiya Maekawa was forced into a good save to deny Ivan Rakitić a late goal, but in the end, an overall lethargic first-half came to a close with both sides still on level terms.
Substitute Ousmane Dembélé offered an exciting spark to Barcelona’s attack in the second half and it looked like the Frenchman could provide the difference, but it was actually academy graduate Carles Pérez who opened the scoring after some neat link-up play with Malcolm. Carles Aleñá could have put the game to bed but tried to be too cute with his dinked effort and it was easily clawed away by Maekawa, while Malcolm wasn’t cute enough when he went for power over placement only to be denied by the crossbar. Pérez then scored his second of the game with just a few minutes left on the clock, firing the ball in off the post from an acute angle to wrap up the win and secure the Rakuten Cup against Vissel Kobe.
It felt like nothing more than a glorified training exercise throughout the first half, with Barcelona’s attack only lacking any real cutting edge against Vissel Kobe’s defense. But the introduction of Malcolm, Ousmane Dembélé and crucially Carles Pérez turned the game on its head, even though goals still hardly went flying in for the Blaugrana. Ditching a first-half line-up that consisted almost exclusively of attacking midfielders being used out wide – Álex Collado and Rafinha were their makeshift wingers – Barcelona offered a much more consistent threat after the break.
