Youngster inspires Barcelona to late come back against Tottenham

 

Sixteen-year-old forward Lamine Yamal was the star of the night as Barcelona beat Tottenham 4-2 at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona on Tuesday.

The teenager who got his first team debut for La Liga last season was instrumental as the Blaugrana won Joan Gamper Trophy ahead of the North London club.

Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring for the hosts early into the game before the third minute, but Oliver Skipp scored a 12-minute brace in the first half to help the North Londoners crawl back into the lead at halftime. 

At the house mark, Barcelona made a flurry of changes on the hour mark, with Robert Lewandowski replaced by Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati coming on for Gavi, while German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan coming on for Pedri.

However, despite the substitutions on the hour mark, it was the one that was made with ten minutes left that made the difference, as Yamal replaced Eric Garcia while Fermin Lopez replaced Oriol Romeu.

Yamal then immediately created an opportunity for Torres to draw level within one minute of coming into the game while Ferran Torres turned provider for Ansu Fati on the 90 minutes mark.

There was time for one more as Moroccan youngster Abde Ezzalzouli scored the fourth and final goal of the game as Barcelona blew away Ange Postecoglu’s side.

Barcelona will start the new season this weekend away at Getafe before further games at home to Cadiz and then away to Villarreal in the third week.

For Tottenham, they were without their star striker Harry Kane who Bayern Munich dropped a third bid of excess of £100M plus add-ons, which was rejected.

Tottenham have completed deals for Netherlands Under-21 defender Micky van de Ven and Argentina U20 forward Alejo Veliz. Spurs signed Van de Ven, 22, from Wolfsburg for an initial 40m euros (£34m), which could rise to a reported 50m euros (£43m) with add-ons.

Daniel Ademiju Idowu