International Champions Cup: Barcelona take on Fiorentina

With the International Champions Cup steadily drawing to a close, Barcelona are odds-on at 4/9 with Coral to beat Italian outfit Fiorentina, despite suffering losses to Manchester United and Chelsea in the competition.

For the Catalan side to win by three or more goals, they are 7/2 and with Luis Suarez in top this pre-season they are more than capable of doing so.

The two teams haven’t played each other since 1999 when they met twice in the Champions League. Both of these occasions were high scoring affairs, with the sides playing out a 3-3 draw in Italy after Barcelona had won 4-2 at the Nou Camp.

On those occasions, such star names as Luis Figo, Luis Enrique and Rivaldo were on target for Barca, while the iconic Gabriel Batistuta and Enrico Chiesa scored the pick of Fiorentina’s goals.

We can expect to see a similar array of attacking talent on show again, with the likes of Suarez, Rafinha and Pedro who has been linked with a move to the Premier League recently, while Fiorentina have Giuseppe Rossi and Khouma Babacar leading the line.

Suarez, meanwhile, has paid tribute to his team, though acknowledges that he isn’t one of the best players: “No, one always tries to accept praise and the things fans say, but I don’t consider myself the most humble nor one of the best. I just try and do my work the best I can.,” he said

“I’m in the best team in the world and doing things I never imagined doing, but that job I leave to the rest so they can give their opinion.

“I have been through many difficult and complicated moments, but I also have to say that I have a great mental capacity to overcome these adversities,” he added.

“I believe that’s a great quality to be able to go through everything I’ve been through and try to overcome that and still have people remember you by your goals, and that brings me a lot of happiness.

“I’m not [in treatment], I am just more conscious of my actions, thinking about everything I do. Before I kept everything bottled up and now I am able to let things go. There’s many things that I didn’t think about before and now I am more conscious.”