Barcelona’s time in Germany and Austria has come to an end this summer, and the Catalans fell to a 2-1 defeat to Red Bull Salzburg in their final game there.
Ronald Koeman opted to veer away from his trusted 4-3-3, which had been used in each pre-season game until Wednesday, to line up with a 3-5-2 setup, but it wasn’t to be a successful change.
Salzburg, cheered on by a capacity 30,000 crowd, impressed early on and had a couple of clear chances early on, only to fall short in front of Neto’s goal. It took until just before half time, in the 43rd minute, for Luka Sucic to open the scoring.
Other than shots from Memphis Depay and Antoine Griezmann, Barcelona did little to threaten their hosts in the first half.
Salzburg changed almost their entire starting XI at the break, but they kept Barcelona under control into the second half as well. Koeman was the first to turn to his bench, making a number of changes, and they eventually led to a leveller as Martin Braithwaite turned in with his knee in the 83rd minute.
Parity didn’t last long, though, as Salzburg got back ahead in the 90th minute through Brenden Aaronson to take the win.
