Barcelona brush aside Mamelodi Sundowns in one-off friendly
Ousmane Dembélé, Luis Suárez and Andre Gomes were among the goals as Barcelona beat Mamelodi Sundowns on their quick visit to South Africa.
Lionel Messi played 16 minutes as Barcelona cruised to a 3-1 win over Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nelson Mandela Centenary Cup in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Barcelona comfortable in FNB Stadium
Ousmane Dembélé and Luis Suárez scored first-half goals and Andre Gomes added another after the interval to help the Spanish champions coast past their South African counterparts.
Though Messi, Gerrard Piqué and Philippe Coutinho all started from the bench, an otherwise strong Barça XI encountered few hiccups, aside from a Sibusiso Vilakazi consolation strike in the 76th minute.
Ernesto Valverde had been criticised for resting players from the thrilling 5-4 defeat to Levante on Sunday that saw Barça's unbeaten LaLiga season come undone in the penultimate match of the season.
Real Sociedad now the focus of attention
But there was to be no repeat of that result at the FNB Stadium, where the lively Dembélé punished a poor defensive pass to open the scoring in the third minute, before Luis Suárez tucked home a second from inside the box 16 minutes later.
Valverde made a host of the changes at half-time and eventually saw his side take a three-goal lead through Andre Gomes in the 67th minute, the midfielder making the most of a mix-up at the back.
The advantage was reduced moments after Messi's introduction, but the Blaugrana will simply be happy to switch attention to Sunday's season-ending visit from Real Sociedad to Camp Nou without any injury concerns from their single-match trip to South Africa.