It may only be pre-season, but an El Clasico victory is an El Clasico victory. In the early hours of Sunday morning UK time, bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona locked horns in a ‘friendly’ match and it was the latter who came away with the bragging rights.
A first half screamer from summer signing Raphinha secured a 1-0 victory for Xavi Hernandez’s side in the overpowering Las Vegas heat.
Raphinha was part of an exciting front three which included new arrival Robert Lewandowski and La Masia graduate Ansu Fati. It was Lewandowski’s first outing in a Barcelona shirt and the Polish superstar performed pretty well overall.
Sure, the 33-year-old wasn’t quite up to the lofty standards which he set at Bayern Munich, but it would have been asking far too much to achieve that on debut.