VfB’s final friendly of pre-season was a special one for several reasons. For the first time in a long while, 25,000 fans were in attendance for a match at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Not only did they get to see a hugely successful outfit in Barcelona, the Spanish club also opted to name several of their biggest stars in their starting XI. Pellegrino Matarazzo, by contrast, only had eight first-team players available.
Barcelona dominated the first half in particular and led 2-0 at the break thanks to goals from Memphis Depay (21’) and Yusuf Demir (36’). Riqui Puig (73’) completed the scoring in the second half against a committed VfB side.
VfB head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo: “The lads gave their all from start to finish. In the first half we defended pretty deep and had little control. In the second half I saw an equal contest in which we had our own opportunities to score. I’m satisfied with the performance. For me, it was important to feel an energy on the pitch and for us to perform as a group, both of which you could see on the pitch. The mentality we showed and the way we fought as a team from start to finish was very positive.”
VfB line-up
33 Fabian Bredlow
4 Marc Oliver Kempf
15 Pascal Stenzel (C)
16 Atakan Karazor
20 Philipp Förster
21 Philipp Klement (78' | 49 Falko Michel)
30 Roberto Massimo
31 Mateo Klimowicz (70' | 53 Marco Wolf)
46 Manuel Polster
47 Richard Weil (78' | 50 Matej Maglica)
51 Dominik Nothnagel (46' | 54 Luca Bazzoli)