Friendlies round-up: Barcelona, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Man United, PSG and Bayern Munich among winners

A number of the world's top sides were in action on Saturday, with Barcelona beating Celtic, Liverpool downing AC Milan and Real Madrid edging Chelsea among the results.

Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez before their friendly against Celtic in Dublin on Saturday. Paul Faith / AFP / July 30, 2016

Barcelona 3 Celtic 1

A blond-haired Lionel Messi failed to get on the scoresheet but it hardly mattered as under-strength Barcelona taught Celtic a footballing lesson in a Dublin friendly on Saturday.

Strikes by Arda Turan and Munir El Haddadi, and an own goal by Efe Ambrose – all before the break – were enough to earn a 3-1 victory for Luis Enrique’s men in what was their first game back after the summer.

Leigh Griffiths had replied to Turan's opener, but manager Brendan Rodgers will be concerned with how vulnerable his defence looked once again, ahead of Celtic's crucial Champions League third qualifying round clash with FC Astana of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The tie is delicately balanced at 1-1 ahead of the second leg at Parkhead.

Barcelona came to Dublin without Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano, Claudio Bravo and Jordi Alba, who aren’t back in training until Sunday, while Neymar is preparing for the Olympics in Brazil.

But there was more than a sprinkling of quality with Messi and Luis Suarez bringing enough star power to help fill over 47,000 seats at Lansdowne Road.

Rodgers made four changes to the side that drew at Astana last Wednesday, but new signing Kolo Toure did not travel.

Things had looked good for Celtic early on and they almost opened the scoring after just 13 seconds when Patrick Roberts capitalised on a Jeremy Mathieu slip, cutting inside – Messi-style – but sending his curling effort inches wide of Jordi Masip’s goal.

With Roberts a constant threat, Celtic had the bulk of the early chances, but when the opening goal came it was from the Spanish champions, Turan firing home powerfully from the edge of the box.

Roberts continued to get the fans on their feet, delivering some of the slalom runs many would have come to see Messi perform.

But when Celtic scored the assist came from a Barca error, handing Griffiths a tap-in from five yards out.

Ambrose and keeper Craig Gordon then conspired to concede a howler, with the centre-half stretching to intercept a harmless cross and sending it beyond the hapless Gordon.

Barcelona added a third before the break as Celtic’s defence collapsed again, with Suarez nipping behind all too easily, before nutmegging Ambrose and squaring to Munir, who was all alone to slot home.

Both sides swapped their entire starting 11s as the second half passed, with a quiet Messi – sporting his new peroxide blond hair – going off at the break.

Liverpool 2 AC Milan 0

Divock Origi and Roberto Firmino scored and Liverpool beat AC Milan 2-0 in an International Champions Cup friendly Saturday night at Levi's Stadium.

Origi opened the scoring at nearly the hour mark off an assist from Alberto Moreno. Firmino scored 14 minutes later on a sliding kick off a deflected pass from Sheyi Ojo.

Origi’s goal followed a first half in which Liverpool put heavy pressure on Milan. They outshot their Italian counterparts 5-2, had five corner kicks to Milan’s one and had the only two blocks in the half.

Origi broke Liverpool's scoreless streak of 104 minutes to start the tournament. The team were coming off a 1-0 loss to Premier League rivals Chelsea. Their next game will be against Barcelona on August 6 in London.

Milan goalkeeper Gabriel had three saves. His side will play Chelsea on August 3 in Minneapolis.

The July 22-August 13 friendly tournament features 17 teams playing on four continents; 10 in the United States and Europe, three in China and four in Australia.

*Associated Press

Real Madrid 3 Chelsea 2

A near-record crowd of 105,826 saw Real Madrid score three first-half goals and hang on for a 3-2 win against Chelsea in a friendly at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.

The attendance was less than 4,000 shy of the United States record attendance for a football (soccer) match, set two years ago at the same stadium in Ann Arbor when 109,318 watched Real Madrid and Manchester United square off.

The crowd turned up even though Real Madrid were without stars Karim Benzema, out with a hip ailment, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, who both have been given time off after Euro 2016.

Brazilian left back Marcelo picked up the slack for Real with goals in the 19th and 26th minutes, and set up Mariano Diaz in the 37th minute to put the Spanish side ahead 3-0.

Chelsea substitute Eden Hazard scored in the 80th minute and stoppage time to make it close.

*Reuters

Manchester United 5 Galatasaray 2

New signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an acrobatic scissor kick within four minutes of pulling on a Manchester United shirt for the first time in a 5-2 friendly rout of Galatasaray on Saturday.

The superstar forward, who moved from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, was finally unleashed by new manager Jose Mourinho in Gothenburg in his native Sweden.

He had hardly broken sweat when, after just 190 seconds, Antonio Valencia – who was to grab three assists in all – swung over a deep cross and Ibrahimovic swung a right boot at it.

It was not the cleanest of volleys – and Mourinho barely acknowledged the goal – but it was enough to bounce into the ground and into the top corner to deceive Fernando Muslera in the Galatasaray goal.

The 34-year-old Ibrahimovic was replaced at the break, when Galatasaray led 2-1 through Sinan Gumus and Bruma.

Wayne Rooney scored a second-half brace and Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata were also on the scoresheet as United came on strong after half-time.

*Agence France-Presse

Bayern Munich 4 Inter Milan 1

Julian Green, who memorably scored for the United States in their World Cup last 16 exit two years ago, again performed for American fans on Saturday with a hat-trick as Bayern Munich defeated Inter Milan in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Green has factored little in the Bayern set-up since his earlier promise as a USA international, going on loan to Hamburg the past two seasons and playing sparingly, at one point getting demoted to Hamburg’s second side in the German fourth tier. But against Inter the 21-year-old, who has yet to make a competitive first-team appearance for Bayern, fired in on just seven minutes and followed it up with two more in a five-minute span later for the first-half hat-trick.

In between Franck Ribery scored Bayern’s second, with Mauro Icardi bringing one back on 90 minutes for overmatched Inter.

Paris Saint-Germain 4 Leicester City 0

PSG gave shock English champions Leicester City a grim look at what life in the Champions League could be like with a drubbing in Southern California.

The French giants went 2-0 up in the first half as Edinson Cavani stroked home a penalty and Nanitamo Ikone added to their tally just before the break.

Lucas Moura made it 3-0 on 64 minutes and Odsonne Edouard rounded out the scoring on the 90-minutes mark to add to Leicester’s humbling. Manager Claudio Ranieri was without Jamie Vardy, but played Riyad Mahrez for over an hour and kept his first-choice centre-back pairing, Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, on the pitch for the full 90 as PSG picked them apart.

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