Preseason Friendly Wrap: Walcott Opener, Benteke Brace, Fabregas Injury and More

Judging by some of the high-level performances on Saturday, those European top flights that have yet to kick off must surely be just around the corner.

The day’s preseason action saw Barcelona entertain more than 65,000 fans in Kuala Lumpur and Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City square off in Helsinki.

There was also action in Dublin, where Liverpool faced Celtic, at Villa Park, where Aston Villa welcomed Malaga, and in St. Louis, where Inter Milan locked horns with Real Madrid.

Following is a quick look at some of Saturday’s more compelling friendlies.

Malaysia 1-3 Barcelona

Barcelona’s preseason drew to a close in the far east, where Cesc Fabregas, Neymar and Gerard Pique each found the back of the net as the Catalans cruised to a 3-1 win over a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lampur.

For a brief time the hosts were actually level with their famous guests—Amri Yahyah having cancelled out Fabregas’ 33rd-minute opener just nine minutes later Jordi Alba’s botched clearance allowed him to hammer the ball past goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

But Barcelona were back in front almost as soon as the celebrations had died down—Fabregas playing provider in this instance and the Brazilian taking his effort calmly with his left foot.

Fabregas, incidentally, hobbled off the pitch with seven minutes to play in normal time. The midfielder had suffered an ankle injury and, as manager Gerardo Martino told reporters after the match, would have to miss Spain’s midweek friendly against Ecuador.

“He’s not doing great right now,” he said, via SW Lim of Goal.com.

By then Pique had added an element of insurance, once again benefitting from a Fabregas pass in the buildup.

Celtic 1-0 Liverpool

Liverpool’s six-match man winning streak in preseason was ended by a side already into its competitive campaign Saturday.

Celtic, who opened their Scottish Premier League schedule last weekend and are also preparing for the Champions League playoff round, got off to a dream start when Amido Balde opened the scoring after just 12 minutes in Dublin.

Pouncing on Stewart Downing’s misplaced pass, Balde cut inside Andre Wisdom and finished through the legs of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to score what proved to be the only goal of the contest.

And while Liverpool quite nearly got an instant equalizer through Joe Allen, the Welshman’s effort was blocked by Mikael Lustig—a harbinger of things to come for a Reds team that dominated large swaths of possession but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

A bright spot for Liverpool, however, was the introduction of Daniel Sturridge in the second half—the forward narrowly missing his first attempt at goal.

Aston Villa 3-2 Malaga

A Christian Benteke brace lifted Aston Villa to a 3-2 win over Malaga at Villa Park Saturday.

The Belgian, who only recently agreed to a new contract with the club for which he scored 19 Premier League goals last season, opened his account after just 12 minutes when he powered through the Malaga defense and finished confidently from in close.

Defender Ron Vlaar doubled the advantage only seven minutes later with an unmarked header from a Matt Lowton corner, and Benteke finished off an action-packed 32 minutes from the penalty spot after he, himself, was taken to the ground by Marcos Angeleri.

Villa’s own Jores Okore handed Malaga a lifeline, however, when he inadvertently directed Bartolomiej Pawlowski’s cross into his own goal.

Sergi Darder pulled the guests to within one shortly after the break, but Villa had done enough and were able to keep their advantage until the final whistle.

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester City

Theo Walcott was the star man of Arsenal’s 3-1 preseason win over Manchester City in the Finnish capital, scoring once and assisting on two others as last season’s fourth-place finishers laid down their 2013-14 credentials with a clinical performance against the runners-up.

It took Walcott, who scored 14 Premier League goals last term, just eight minutes to get his name on the scoresheet on Saturday, linking up splendidly with England teammate Jack Wilshere before a cool finish past Three Lions goalkeeper Joe Hart gave Arsenal the lead.

City, it must be said, seemed to dominate possession at times but possessed nowhere near the clinical ability demonstrated in front of goal by their opponents.

Still, it took Arsenal until the 58th minute to double their advantage, although just three minutes after Aaron Ramsey’s goal the Gunners found themselves 3-0 up thanks to Olivier Giroud.

Walcott helped out on both occasions, first sliding the ball through to Ramsey for the second goal and then releasing a pinpoint accurate, 35-yard ball to Giroud for the third.

New City signing Alvaro Negredo provided a small measure of consolation with 11 minutes to play when, after getting past Laurent Koscielny, he sent the ball through the legs of Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and into the back of the net.

Real Madrid 3-0 Inter Milan

Real Madrid made it look easy—brushing Inter Milan aside en route to a convincing 3-0 win in St. Louis.

That said, it was the Nerazzurri who had the first, meaningful chance of the afternoon. Andrea Ranocchia’s long, random clearance somehow found Rodrigo Palacio, although the Argentine struggled to control the ball and had it eventually smothered away from him by Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez.

Only moments later Madrid took the lead—Kaka beating Inter’s Samir Handanovic with a second effort after his initial one was saved by the Slovenian.

Madrid were now fully in the ascendancy and doubled their advantage with seven minutes to play in the first half, Casemiro finding Cristiano Ronaldo with a delightful ball that put the Portugal captain in clear to score.

Casemiro, himself, rounded out the scoring in the 67th minute when his effort from Angel Di Maria’s corner found its way into the Inter goal after a deflection off a defender.