By Daily Sports on May 17, 2018

Twitter went into meltdown in South Africa on Wednesday when soccer legend Lionel Messi and the rest of the Barcelona squad landed in the country.

Messi’s arrival turned into a meme factory on Twitter. Others wondered whether Sundowns had a chance of beating Messi, let alone Barcelona.

The team played against Mamelodi Sundowns in the evening.

Messi came on as a second-half substitute as Barcelona beat Mamelodi Sundowns 3-1 in a friendly in Johannesburg on Wednesday as part of the Nelson Mandela Centenary celebrations.

There were cheers when he eventually began to warm up, coming on in place of B team midfielder Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta with just 15 minutes to go and with Barca already three goals ahead.

Ousmane Dembele had given them the lead within three minutes, making the most of a defensive error to curl home expertly from the edge of the box.

The Spanish champions then doubled their lead in the 20th minute when Denis Suarez fed his namesake, Luis Suarez, who made no mistake when one-on-one with Denis Onyango.

Dembele then had an effort cleared off the line but the eight-time and current South African champions also had their fair share of chances. Marc-Andre ter Stegen had to be switched on to keep out Percy Tau and Hlompho Kekana.

Valverde made 11 changes at half-time, with injured duo Thomas Vermaelen and Samuel Umtiti the only first-team players not to feature. One of the substitutes, Andre Gomes, added Barca’s third after good work by Paco Alcacer.

Messi was then introduced but was a spectator as Sibusiso Vilakazi pulled one back for Sundowns, getting the better of Jasper Cillessen after managing to stay onside.

Barca now return to Spain to prepare for their final game of the season at home to Real Sociedad on Sunday.

South African press have been reporting that Sundowns’ owner and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe allegedly paid Barcelona 3m euro ($3.5m; £2.6m) to make the trip.

•Adapted from reports by BBC and ESPN. Photo: Messi waving at fans

Source Daily Sports

Posted May 17, 2018

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