Ahmed Musa scored two second half goals but his Leicester City were eventually outfoxed by Barcelona in a pre-season friendly in Stockholm on Wednesday.
A Luis Suarez strike sandwiched between two excellent Munir finishes gave the La Liga champions a 3-0 half-time lead and 17-year-old substitute Rafa Mujica sealed the 4-2 victory after two excellent strikes from Leicester’s new Nigerian striker.
But while Leicester go into their competitive season opener off the back of shipping eight goals in two games there were certainly some promising signs for Claudio Ranieri .
The Foxes looked a real threat early in the game until 20-year-old Munir took advantage of a lapse in concentration from Danny Simpson to latch onto an excellent Lionel Messi through-ball. The Spaniard, looking to take advantage of Neymar’s absence, finished excellently on his left foot after 28 minutes.
Suarez, having missed a couple of good chances early on then made it two just seven minutes later, Messi the provider again with the dinked through ball before the Uruguayan bulldozed through some weak defending and prodded the ball into the roof of the net.
The former Liverpool man then turned provider moments before half-time, picking out the pass of the game to release Munir who brought the ball down beautifully before prodding past Ron-Robert Zieler with his left boot.
Having gone down 4-0 t French champions Paris Saint-Germain in their last outing, it was looking like another drubbing, but the arrival of new man Musa changed things immediately.
The powerful forward picked up the ball on half way and showed immense strength, power and skill to find a path to the penalty area, before neatly slotting the ball into the corner.
His second was almost as sweet, as another substitute Jeffrey Schlupp robbed full back Juan Camara before squaring to the Nigerian who fired the ball into the roof of the net.
At 3-2 Musa was then denied a penalty when Javier Mascherano impeded him in the box, the referee wasn’t interested.
With the Foxes looking like stealing an honorary point, it was Barca who had the last laugh, teenage substitute Mujica powerfully slamming the ball in from 10 yards after a rapid counter-attack.
Nevertheless, Ranieri will certainly be pleased with the improvement his side made from their defeat by PSG, ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Manchester United.
