Lionel Messi scored his first pre-season goals in Barcelona as coach Arturo Vidal, and Ronald Koeman left Luis Suárez and for a second friendly match Wednesday off his side.
Messi netted two goals and set another in a 3-1 win over second-tier Girona, the second training match for Barcelona since Koeman took over as coach.
The goals were also Messi’s first since his failed attempt in the quarterfinals of the Champions League to leave the club this offseason, following a trophy-less season and the humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich.
Messi told the club that he wanted to leave after Barcelona declined to allow him to go, only to change his mind.
Barcelona shared a photo of Messi and Koeman clasping hands-on Twitter when the star forward, along with most of his teammates, was replaced with half an hour to go.
It seemed to send a message of solidarity between the player and manager in the midst of one of the most turbulent times in the recent history of the club.
Barcelona is seeking to find new homes for Vidal and Suárez, two players who would not fit into Koeman’s team rejuvenation plans at the age of 33. The Spanish media said Vidal was close to transferring to Inter Milan.
In recent days, Juventus’s reported interest in Suárez appears to have cooled. Koeman also left the door open for Suárez to stay when the coach talked after victory on Wednesday.
“Suárez will be treated like any other member of this team if he ends up staying,” Koeman said. “This morning, I talked to him, and we still don’t know whether he’s staying or going .”
Girona gave no resistance to the assault in Barcelona made up of new signers Antoine Griezmann, Francisco Trincão, Philippe Coutinho, and Messi.
Messi’s perfectly positioned pass sent Trincão straight forward to square the ball to Coutinho for Portugal, who only had to scoop at the opener in the 20th minute.
Messi doubled the lead in the 45th, with a shot from outside upright of the field. After halftime, Samuel Saiz had Girona on the scoreboard before Messi had his brace with such a picture that took a deflection off from a defender to fool the Girona goalkeeper.
Koeman told that he was pleased with his young players, particularly the 19-year-old Konrad de la Fuente, who came on as a replacement four days since he began his career last weekend in the friendly against Tarragona.
If I need to pick a young player to single out, I’ll go along with Konrad,” said Koeman. “Just as I am with Riqui (Puig) and (Pedro)” Pedri (González), I am satisfied with him.”
Koeman will have another warm-up match against Elche on Saturday before the Spanish league season against Villarreal begins in Barcelona on 27 September.
