Luuk de Jong made his unofficial debut for Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon. The attacker, who was taken over from Sevilla, participated for sixty minutes in the friendly match against AE Prat (2-1 victory) at the club’s training complex. De Jong did not score during his baptism of fire for the Catalan superpower. Philippe Coutinho did, while Barcelona’s other goal was credited to a Prat player after a bet from Pedri.
At Barcelona, the internationals Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong, Sergiño Dest, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets were missing. In addition to Luuk de Jong, trainer Ronald Koeman chose Marc-André, Riqui Puig, Samuel Umtiti and Sergi Roberto in the starting lineup. The Dutch coach used the familiar 4-3-3 system against Prat. After the friendly meeting on the training ground of Barcelona, both teams took a picture with each other.
?? Un entrenament diferent… Partit ?? l’@aeprat1945 pic.twitter.com/mTPAGHtKhH
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_cat) September 8, 2021
Luuk de Jong has to wait a little longer for his official debut in the Barcelona shirt. The game with his former club Sevilla, scheduled for September 11, has been postponed. The reason for these shifts is the extended international match period in South America, which lasts two days longer than elsewhere in the world after the start of the World Cup qualifiers last year was postponed due to the corona pandemic. The last round of the World Cup qualifiers will be completed in the night from Thursday to Friday, which means that clubs will not be able to see their players again until Friday afternoon at the earliest with three games in their legs. LaLiga has resisted this in vain, but also decided to change the program and use charter flights to get the players back as quickly as possible.
For example, the matches of Real Madrid (against Celta de Vigo) and Atlético Madrid (against Espanyol) have been moved from Saturday to Sunday. However, this was not an option for Barcelona – Sevilla and Villarreal – Alavés, as Barcelona, Sevilla and Villarreal already play in the group stage of the Champions League on Tuesday against Bayern Munich, Red Bull Salzburg and Atalanta. LaLiga therefore asked permission from the Spanish Football Association to postpone the games until further notice. That was initially rejected, because the Spanish Football Association thought that there was no question of force majeure.
LaLiga did not give up and called in the CSD, which ultimately decided to postpone the games. Barcelona (Ronald Araujo), Sevilla (Gonzalo Montiel, Aléjandro Gómez and Marcos Acuña) and Villarreal (Gerónimo Rulli and Pervis Estupiñán) have to miss so many South American internationals according to the highest sports court in Spain that there is no question of a fair situation. It is not yet clear when the duels will be made up. De Jong may now make his debut for Barcelona on September 14, which will be visited by Bayern Munich that day in the group stage of the Champions League.
Line-up Barcelona against AE Prat: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Comas, Umtiti, Balde; Riqui Puig, Pedri, Sergi Roberto; Collado, Luuk de Jong, Coutinho.