On the morning of July 25th, Barcelona took the stage for a pre-season warm-up match against Girona. Depay made his Barcelona debut and scored his first goal in the second half. The final score was 3-1, and Barcelona won twice in a row.
For the starting formation, Barcelona used the classic 4-3-3 tactic. The goalkeeper's position was held by No. 26 Peña, the backline consisted of No. 2 Durst, No. 3 Piqué, No. 23 Umtiti and No. 18 Valverde, while No. 20 Roberto, No. 12 Puich and No. 6 Nick Gonzalez were in charge of dispatching in midfield, and the front line featured the trident of De Mire, Manayi and Modimer.
In the 19th minute of the first half, Balde was taken down as he burst into the box and Barcelona was awarded a penalty kick, which Piqué converted to give his team a 1-0 lead. In the 20th minute, Manaj took a low cross from a teammate and scored with ease to extend the lead to 2-0. However, Girona was also awarded a penalty kick in the 41st minute, and Saez skillfully spooned in a penalty kick to make it 1-2 on the field.
In the second half, Barcelona replaced eight players. In the 48th minute, Depay's shot from the right was parried by the opposing goalkeeper. In the 61st minute, his long-distance shot from the top of the arc went slightly wide. In the 71st minute, Griezmann faced the goalkeeper and shot the ball wide. Until the 85th minute, Barcelona again won a penalty kick, Depay penalty scored his first goal in Barcelona, the score was fixed at 3-1.
At the end of a 90-minute thriller, Barcelona came away with a 3-1 victory over Girona. Piqué and Depay scored from the penalty spot, while Manaj scored consecutive goals only to leave the field with an injury. Barcelona will continue their preparations in the coming days as the team will also face pre-season warm-up matches against Stuttgart and Juventus. Their official debut of the new season will be against Real Sociedad in the first round of La Liga on August 16th.
