MADRID, 22 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona announced the cancellation of the first pre-season friendly, this Saturday against Juventus FC in Santa Clara (United States), due to a viral gastroenteritis that affects a large part of the Barça squad.
“FC Barcelona informs that the match against Juventus FC, scheduled for today, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Levi’s Stadium corresponding to the Soccer Champions Tour, has been suspended. An important part of the Barça squad is affected by viral gastroenteritis,” the club says.
Barça thus suspended its preseason debut a few hours before, scheduled for 4:30 a.m. peninsular time from Saturday to Sunday. Xavi Hernández’s team landed in Los Angeles on Wednesday the 19th and since then has had four training sessions at the Memorial Coliseum.
The first test of the summer will have to wait, perhaps the next one on the agenda, if the virus allows it, against Arsenal on July 27 at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The big event of the preseason is the Clásico against Real Madrid at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, on the 29th.
Thus, new Barça signings such as Ilkay Gündogan and Oriol Romeu will have to wait to play their first minutes, while Spanish center back Iñigo Martínez is still recovering from his injury and was not expected to have minutes against Juve.