The first team of the Spanish club Barcelona continues its preparations to start competing in the new season, as it plays its first friendly match this evening, through which the technical staff arranges its papers.
Barcelona will play, at eight in the evening today, Friday, its first friendly test in preparation for the 2025-2026 season, when it faces Europa at the Sports City Stadium, behind closed doors and without any spectators.
Experienced elements
The Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported that today's match has all the characteristics of preparatory friendly matches, except for the absence of spectators, and the team had conducted a training session this morning before that encounter.
The report indicated that Hansi Flick, Barcelona's technical director, seeks in today's match to monitor the players he has worked with over the first two weeks of the preparation period, especially since among these players there are a number of elements whose future with the first team remains undecided.
Available to Flick from the first-team players are: Marc-André ter Stegen, Wojciech Szczęsny, Alejandro Balde, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casadó, Gerard Martín, Marc Bernal, Héctor Fort, Ronnie Bardghji, and Ronald Araújo.
Hamza Abdelkarim's mission
The list also includes a large number of reserve team and youth players, led by the Egyptian striker Hamza Abdelkarim, alongside Iker Rodríguez, Aaron Yakubishvili, Tommy Márquez, Oriol Gori, Ibrahima Tunkara, Geoffrey Torents, Óscar Gistau, Ibrahim Diarra, Xavi Espart, Álvaro Cortés, Toni Fernández, Álex González, Guille Fernández, and Jordi Fusqué.
Hamza Abdelkarim, who participated with the Egypt national team in the 2026 World Cup, wants to establish himself with Barcelona's first team, especially in the absence of the attacking duo Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres.
History of matches between the two teams
Mundo Deportivo explained that this match, to be officiated by referee Gerard Ríos Río, will be an important opportunity for the young players to convince Flick before the start of the new season.
Europa is one of Catalonia's most prestigious clubs, having participated in the first three seasons of La Liga between 1928 and 1931. During that period, it met Barcelona in 6 matches, with Barça winning four, drawing once, while Europa secured only one victory.
In the modern era, Europa defeated Barcelona in the Catalan Cup finals in 1997 and 1998; it won 3-1 in the first final, then claimed the second title on penalties after a 1-1 draw, in a match where Portuguese José Mourinho was leading Barcelona from the bench.
The year 2008 also saw a notable encounter between the two teams, when Pep Guardiola led Barcelona "B" to a 1-0 victory over Europa at "Nou Sardinia" Stadium to clinch the Third Division title, before the team later succeeded in promoting to the Second Division "B".
