Thailand 1-7 Barcelona: Pedro nets hat-trick in pre-season stroll

Only five days after the 8-0 mauling of Santos, Gerardo Martino's side produced another attacking masterclass to emphatically defeat the War Elephants in Bangkok 

 

 

Neymar scored his first Barcelona goal as the Liga champions ran out 7-1 winners over Thailand at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok on Wednesday.

The Brazilian's maiden strike set the Spanish champions on their way before a double from Lionel Messi, a Pedro hat-trick and an Alexis Sanchez strike gave Gerardo Martino's side a resounding victory. 

The major surprise in Martino's starting XI was the inclusion of summer signing Neymar, who had been diagnosed with anaemia earlier in the week. Youngsters Frank Bagnack and Sergi Roberto were the only 'B' team individuals to be handed starts.

It took only 12 minutes for Barca to open the scoring and it was a first goal in a Blaugrana jersey for Neymar as he showed great awareness to prod home Cesc Fabregas' drilled low cross from a few yards out.

Los Cules were soon celebrating a second only a minute later when Lionel Messi was sent tumbling in the box under a clumsy challenge from Artit Daosawang. The Argentine picked himself up to coolly tuck the ball past Sinthaweechai Hathairattanakool and into the bottom left corner.

It was a dazzling first-half performance from Messi and he turned provider on 19 minutes when he cushioned Alves' cross into the path of Pedro, who smashed an unstoppable shot past the Thailand goalkeeper for his first of the game.

The Thailand defence just could not cope with the free-roaming Barcelona front trio and it became 4-0 on 25 minutes. Neymar played a quick free kick to Adriano and the Brazilian left-back squared for Messi to slot in his second, with the defenders looking quizzically at one another.

Pedro then doubled his own tally on 35 minutes when he swept the ball past Hathairattanakool after good work from Messi down the left.

It was a dominant 45 minutes from Martino's men but they gave the home fans something to cheer as Bagnack was deemed to have fouled Teerasil Dangda inside the box, forcing the referee to point to the spot. However, replays showed that contact was clearly made outside the area.

Dangda stepped up to take the spot kick himself and sent captain Victor Valdes the wrong way to give the Asian side a consolation.

Martino made eight chances at the break but that did little to disrupt Barcelona's attacking flow and Pedro notched his hat trick in the 48th minute. Fabregas floated a perfectly-weighted pass over the Thailand defence for his international team-mate, who deftly dinked the ball over the advancing goalkeeper with his first touch.

Alexis Sanchez rounded off the scoring only a minute later, when he surged ahead of his marker to steer Iniesta's low cross past the goalkeeper and put Barcelona into an unassailable six-goal lead.

There wer plenty of positives for Gerardo Martino's side, who travel to Kuala Lumpur to face Malaysia in their final pre-season match on Saturday afternoon, ahead of their opening Liga showdown against Levante on August 18.