Mane stars as Liverpool put 4 past lackluster Barcelona

Sadio Mane scored one and made another as Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool swept past Barcelona in a very very one sided affair at Wembley this Saturday. Whilst the latest Fc Barcelona odds still have them down as favourites for this year’s La Liga title, the performance last weekend was still a cause for concern.

The Merseyside Reds went on a rampage as they Gegen-pressed the majority of their goals past Luis Enrique’s side – highlighting Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez – into accommodation of the ball, which took into consideration Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Marko Grujic to get their names on the score sheet, and also constraining ex-Red Javier Mascherano to put into his own particular net.

A £34m catch from Southampton, Mane struck a fifteenth moment opener and after that supplied the cross from which ex-Liverpool player Javier Mascherano scored an own goal.

Divock Origi included a third seconds after the and substitute Marko Grujic contributed with a stoppage-time header as Jurgen Klopp’s side enrolled their 6th win in eight pre-season outings. As for Barcelona, it came as a surprise result because they were very confident in their team and their strike force upfront.

Barcelona’s annihilation implied that Paris Saint-Germain won the International Champions Cup for the second year running. The likes of Mascherano and Mathieu, who have been solid for Barcelona since day one, did not show commitment and were very sloppy, thus, their defense got pierced. This goes to show that even with world class talent; there is always room for improvement. Luis Enrique surely must have a lot to look into.

The Barcelona boss was surely missing Neymar, who is on obligation with hosts Brazil at the Olympics. Upfront Messi and former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez; could not do much as they were closed down by the Liverpool back four, who did a splendid job in holding out the likes of Iniesta and Messi.

Barca play Sampdoria at the Camp Nou in their final pre-season friendly on Wednesday and face Sevilla in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup on August 14.

“From the beginning we saw two teams with completely different rhythms,” said Luis Enrique.

“It was definitely not our best day. But there’s enough days for us to prepare and there’s no doubt we’ll be competitive.”

In my opinion, Liverpool looked sharp against The Catalan giants in this match but all will be put to test when they face Arsenal next week. Other than that, Barcelona’s defense looked very vulnerable and it was very unlike of them to lose the ball constantly. Luis Enrique needs to sort the team problems out before the start of the new season.

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