Fiorentina vs Barcelona Preview and Line Up Prediction: Barcelona to Win 1

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique refused to be too downbeat following his side’s 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina in the worldwide Champions Cup on Sunday.

The hosts’ Federico Bernardeschi proved to be the star of the evening at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, scoring twice in the opening 12 minutes to all-but wrap up victory in a quickfire start from the Italian outfit.

“This has to serve as a stimulus for the team”, he said. “And, if we can make him even better, then that’s great”. They did manage to win their second game as they took Benfica to penalties following a goalless draw.

Fiorentina will look to stop them in their tracks, though Paulo Sousa’s side would be forgiven for being a little more rusty than their Catalan opponents. There are plenty of aspects of the game that I liked.

Luis Enrique’s experiment to deploy Rafinha as a right winger did not work as well as expected either, with the 22-year-old largely unable to run past his marker.

The only real success of the tour was the form of Liverpool striker Luis Suarez who managed to score against LA Galaxy and Chelsea and did so without the help of either Lionel Messi or Neymar.

Despite a far from ideal beginning to the fresh campaign, how prepared or indeed unprepared Barcelona are for the 2015-16 season will only become apparent once the season kicks-off, with Barca’s first competitive match set to take place against Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup on August 11th at the Boris Paichadze Stadium.

An action-packed start to proceedings showed no sign of abating as Suarez pulled a goal back for the visitors, the Uruguayan collecting a sublime cushioned volley from Ivan Rakitic before beating Ciprian Tatarusanu.