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Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores in friendly defeat

Luis Suarez’s place in the Barca XI could be under threat from Antoine Griezmann but he took his goal well

An excellent late goal from Luis Suarez gave Barcelona a 2-1 friendly win over Arsenal at a packed Nou Camp.

In their final pre-season game, Arsenal named a fairly strong starting XI and led at half-time through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s fine individual strike.

But Barca were dominant after the break and levelled through Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ calamitous own goal.

Former Liverpool man Suarez then came off the bench to score a clinical late volley for the La Liga champions.

Lionel Messi was an unused substitute but a crowd of 98,812 did get their first glimpse of £107m signing Antoine Griezmann.

The Frenchman was fairly quiet, his best moment coming with a disallowed goal for offside after an excellent pass from Ivan Rakitic.

Arsenal – without record signing Nicolas Pepe – counter-attacked well in the first half and Aubameyang put them ahead with a brilliant turn and finish from 16 yards, shrugging off Jordi Alba to lash into the top corner.

That shocked the home crowd, and after half-time Barcelona were completely on top. Bernd Leno saved well from Ousmane Dembele twice before Maitland-Niles passed beyond him without looking for an own goal.

Seventeen-year-old Bukayo Saka looked lively for the Gunners as a late sub but Suarez prevented a penalty shootout when he ran onto Sergi Roberto’s lofted through ball to drive a volley past Leno.

Arsenal face Newcastle in their Premier League opener next Sunday.

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