Goals and Highlights: Barcelona 1-2 Chelsea, 2019 Rakuten Cup

The game has ended here in Japan. Lampard's Chelsea was far superior to Valverde's Barcelona.

We are underway here at the RAKUTEN CUP! 

Juliano Belletti, ex-player of Barça and Chelsea, has been one of the protagonists in the match preview.

📍 Tokyo - Barça Fan Zone
📢 @julianobelletti
🇯🇵 Barça Fans 👏👏👏
🏆 #RakutenCup pic.twitter.com/YYEIZHeDvY

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) 23 de julio de 2019

Lineups will be announced shortly.

The Barcelona striker was not present at the first training session in Japan due to hip pain. 

We are less than an hour away from this exciting Barcelona vs Chelsea kick-off!

Do not miss a detail of the match with the live updates and commentaries of VAVEL. Follow along with us all the details, commentaries, analysis and lineups for this Barcelona vs Chelsea Rakuten Cup game.

If you want to watch the game on TV, your options are: Bein Sports.

If you want to watch in on internet, VAVEL USA is your best option!

Located in Midori-ku, Saitama Prefecture, it was inaugurated in 2001 and has a capacity for 63,700 spectators. It is the sports facility where the Urawa Red Diamonds of the J1 League play their matches.

Chelsea FC coach Frank Lampard also spoke about his opponents: "Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world. We have good memories and bad ones against them. It's always a special game.

At the presentation of the Rakuten Cup, Ernesto Valverde was ambitious about his team's participation in the competition: "We want to win both matches because here in Japan we have a lot of fans and we want to correspond to them".

In the last five occasions (with four official matches and a friendly) in which the two teams have faced each other, the results have been:

1 victory for FC Barcelona

1 victory for Chelsea FC

3 draws

In these duels, there have been 8 goals from the Catalans and 7 from the English.

Leo Messi, Arturo Vidal, Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho and Arthur Melo were present at the summer tournament held in Brazil and are still on vacation, so they will not be in Japan with the club. All of them are expected to be ready in August.

FC Barcelona have reinforced the first team's squad with three new players: Neto Murara, Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann. Hiroki Abe, a Japanese player recently signed to help García Pimienta's Barça B, could also have minutes.

The Catalan club announced the list of players who will be in Japan to play the Rakuten Cup:

Goalkeepers: Ter Stegen, Neto, Iñaki Peña.

Defenders: Semedo, Piqué, Todibo, Lenglet, Jordi Alba, Sergi Roberto, Umtiti, Araújo, Guillem Jaime.

Midfielders: Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, Rafinha, Aleñá, Frenkie de Jong, Oriol Busquets, Monchu, Collado, Riqui Puig.

Forwards: Dembélé, Malcom, Griezmann, Carles Pérez, Hiroki Abe.

Unlike Barça, Chelsea have made their debut in their particular pre-season, having already played three games: Kawasaki (1-0 defeat), St. Patricks (0-4 victory) and Bohemians (1-1 draw).

The tournament has three participants: FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC and Vissel Kobe. The azulgranas, after the first match against Chelsea, will face the Japanese team where Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Sergi Sampere play.

Barcelona will make its debut of the 2019 preseason against Chelsea, a match from Rakuten Cup.

Subsequently, Ernesto Valverde's team has programmed four more matches, being their rivals Vissel Kobe (July 27), Arsenal (August 4) and Napoli (double header, August 8 and 10).

Welcome to VAVEL.com’s LIVE coverage of this 2019 friendly game: FC Barcelona vs Chelsea!

My name is Alan Nunez and I’ll be your host for this game. We will provide you with pre-game analysis, roster updates, and news as it happens live here on VAVEL.