Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores in friendly defeat

An excellent late goal from Luis Suarez gave Barcelona a 2-1 friendly win over Arsenal at a packed Nou Camp.

In their final pre-season game, Arsenal named a fairly strong starting XI and led at half-time through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's fine individual strike.

But Barca were dominant after the break and levelled through Ainsley Maitland-Niles' calamitous own goal.

Former Liverpool man Suarez then came off the bench to score a clinical late volley for the La Liga champions.

Lionel Messi was an unused substitute but a crowd of 98,812 did get their first glimpse of £107m signing Antoine Griezmann.

The Frenchman was fairly quiet, his best moment coming with a disallowed goal for offside after an excellent pass from Ivan Rakitic.

Arsenal - without record signing Nicolas Pepe - counter-attacked well in the first half and Aubameyang put them ahead with a brilliant turn and finish from 16 yards, shrugging off Jordi Alba to lash into the top corner.

That shocked the home crowd, and after half-time Barcelona were completely on top. Bernd Leno saved well from Ousmane Dembele twice before Maitland-Niles passed beyond him without looking for an own goal.

Seventeen-year-old Bukayo Saka looked lively for the Gunners as a late sub but Suarez prevented a penalty shootout when he ran onto Sergi Roberto's lofted through ball to drive a volley past Leno.

Arsenal face Newcastle in their Premier League opener next Sunday.

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82 comments

98,812 is a pretty damn impressive attendance for a pre-season friendly.
Maitland Niles will be gutted with that calamitous equaliser, but a cock up is better doing in a freindly match than in any game which could cost the Gunners potentially crucial points. The lad is not a proper right back either, so these sort of mistakes could always be on the cards against quility opposition. Arsenal are crazy not to be spending money on fixing their rearguard for new campaign.
Still need at least one decent centre back...
Calamitous from AMN, and it just goes to show how poor Mustafi truly is how he bother covering the space behind when the ball was dinked into Suarez. Arsenal need to sell Mustafi and sign a centre half ASAP.
You can forgive Maitland Niles for an absolute calamity in a preseason game - especially as he's not a defender by trade.

But it is no coincidence that Mustafi came on in the 87th minute and Arsenal conceded in the 90th. He had a very respectable first 6 months at Arsenal after joining, but I would rather see an Under 18s CB on the field than him these days. He lacks any positional awareness.
@34. Frozen Horse
“I'd rather lose to Barca than win the Aldi cup.”

That’s a Lidl cruel. 😄
Great workout, encouraging performance from Willock again. No disgrace losing away in a friendly to Barca.
An own goal and Mustafi on the pitch for 2 minutes ended what was a good performance otherwise from Arsenal. Things are looking up, defense remains an issue.
Sergi Roberto gets mentioned for his lofted pass but Ozil doesn't for his brilliant through ball to Aubermayang to score. I wonder why, doesn't fit the agenda?
Mustafi comes on and ...

Mustafi is so bad that we'd do better playing with ten men.

Pre season has been pretty depressing watching helplessly as we continue to defend like The Dog & Dick third XI.

Duck: Duck. I meant Duck ..
Absolutely no axe to grind with the Gunners;

Big club & a top team back in the day.

Why o why has nothing been done to address that terrible defence.

It's all for real as of next week.

Good luck with that.
If they aren't going to buy defenders then they should at least do the moral thing and provide every arsenal fan with a pacemaker for the upcoming season.
Excellent game 'calamitous own goal' classic over the top bbc football headline as usual saved for one of their none golden balls team
Not quite as one sided as written. Barca shaded it but Arsenal were excellent in defence midfield and striking
Mustafi was on late so to be whinging about him is fanasy, he has better stats last season than maguire Moments of excellence from AFC bring on 19/20 PL
It was a PSF. No Pepe. Meaningless result, from which there is nothing realistic to be deduced. These games are just about getting as many players as poss match fit for the start of the real season. Does Man U's 6 wins out of 6 in PSF's mean they'll win the league? Of course it doesn't. And Ole the Gunner ;-), knows that.
I think Leno may need to become more vocal. That is not the first time one of his defenders didn't seem to no where he was.
Gary Cahill on a free? Is that a joke?
We need a defender with pace and can play put from that back - neither are mustafi's strong points. He was on the pitch less than 5 mins and got exposed. I doubt suarez would have run in free if sokratis was still on the pitch
Mustafi is a last-resort backup defender you wish you'd never have to use.
Still need to strengthen our defense, no matter how many goals we score, better teams will score more against us. Stop looking for more forward players, get Cahill or similar if we cannot purchase another central defender
I would debate the article when it says we names a “ fairly strong side “ . When I saw our line up I feared we might get a proper drubbing, but this was actually a very decent effort, and with a comedy own goal given away.
Perhaps Leno needs to be more vocal. That is not the first time one of his defenders didn't seem to know where he was.