Lamine Yamal was on target and summer signing Jesse Bisiwu dazzled with a late brace as Barcelona beat Basel 5-2 on Sunday.
Yamal scored Barça’s third goal from the penalty spot in the second half in his first appearance since winning the World Cup with Spain.
Bisiwu, 18, then announced himself to Barça supporters with a double off the bench after joining the club from Club Brugge for €8 million ($9.2m) last month.
Teenager Jean Doucouré had earlier cancelled out Karim Adeyemi‘s opener in an entertaining match at St. Jakob’s Park.
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Hamza Abdelkarim’s third goal of preseason restored Barca’s lead before Yamal and then Kazeem Olaigbe exchanged late penalties ahead of Bisiwu’s strikes.
Anthony Gordon, a €70m summer signing from Newcastle United, made his first start for Barça, while Yamal’s fellow World Cup-winners Dani Olmo and Pau Cubarsí also got their first minutes of preseason.
Barça now turn their attention to Wednesday’s Joan Gamper Trophy against Al Ahly, their final friendly before they kick off their defence of the LaLiga title at Elche on Aug. 23.
Basel are already three games into the Swiss Super League season and fielded a heavily rotated team against the Spanish champions.
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It showed early on as Gordon, playing on the left wing with Raphinha through the middle and Adeyemi on the right, caused problems with his pace.
The England winger created and wasted chances before fellow summer signing Adeyemi opened the scoring in the 34th minute.
Collecting a pass from Raphinha, the former Borussia Dortmund forward ghosted into the middle of the area with far too much space and drilled home.
The lead did not last long, with 17-year-old Doucouré drawing Basel level before the break with a smart finish from the edge of the box.
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Egypt international Abdelkarim continued his fine summer by converting Adeyemi’s cross to restore Barça’s advantage in the second half.
Yamal then came off the bench to score from the spot after Jules Koundé had been fouled, only for Basel to go up the other end and reduce the gap to one again via a penalty of their own.
Olaigbe’s strike after a Brian Fariñas foul did not spark a late comeback, though, with Bisiwu stealing the show with goals in the 89th and 91st minute set up by Olmo and Yamal.
