By Joiner Martinez
FC Barcelona achieved its second victory in the United States, after beating Real Madrid two goals to one in a friendly match played in the metropolitan area of New York and marked by an electrical storm that forced the match to be suspended for more than an hour.
Youth player Pau Víctor scored both of Barcelona’s goals at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets and which will also host the 2026 World Cup final.
Despite the youth of its eleven and the stands with a notable majority of Madrid fans, Barcelona started with personality, weaving well between the lines and going deep, especially down the left flank.
The first chance came early, in the 7th minute, and it was crystal clear: a fabulous header from Pau Víctor after a corner that Thibaut Courtois deflected with excellent reflexes.
The storm interruption did not affect the Blaugrana, who continued to dominate the game after the restart with Marc Bernal, Marc Casadó and Pablo Torre taking a strong position in the centre.
Extremely active, Victor once again tested Courtois while Madrid left little news in attack: a goal disallowed by Arda Güler for offside and a deflected shot by Endrick.
Victor’s reward came in the 42nd minute. Alex Valle put in a cross with his wrong foot from the right, Robert Lewandowski found it at the far post and laid it off for the youngster to just push in.
At the start of the second half he came close to scoring again with a solid shot that was saved by Courtois, but the Belgian goalkeeper was powerless to stop the second goal.
It was another triangulation with the same names but a different order. Lewandowski opened up wonderfully on the right for Valle, the full-back excelled with a cross with his outside foot and Pau Víctor sealed his double in the heart of the area in the 54th minute.
The arrival of Vinícius Jr., who made his pre-season debut for Real Madrid, gave fresh air to Carlo Ancelotti’s ailing attack.
His forays into the game revived Madrid and he even came close to scoring from a corner, but the goal of honour for Madrid came in the 82nd minute from Nico Paz, with a header completely alone from a corner kick.
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