Barca reschedule Lechia game

Barcelona have announced that they will now play their friendly with Lechia Gdansk on July 30, having pulled out of the original date.

The original game was set to be Barca’s opening preseason encounter of this summer and was meant to have been played on Saturday July 20 in Poland.

However, Friday’s news that Coach Tito Vilanova had suffered a second relapse in his fight against throat cancer, which has forced him to step down from his role, saw Barca withdraw from the game.

With the search for his successor set to be concluded this week, with Gerardo Martino and Luis Enrique believed to be the two candidates up for consideration, Barca have announced the rearrangement of their trip out to Poland.

The club will now play Lechia Gdansk on Tuesday July 30 at an 7.45pm UK time kick-off. The game may now involve some of the team’s international players, who, after Confederations Cup involvement, will have returned from their extended holidays this summer on July 29.

Barca’s first preseason friendly will now be Wednesday’s trip out to Germany to face former Coach Pep Guardiola’s new side Bayern Munich.

Three days later will see the team in Norway competing against Valerenga, whilst August has friendlies lined up with Neymar’s former team Santos, for the Joan Gamper Trophy and against select XIs from Thailand and Malaysia in a brief tour of Asia.