Barcelona’s 2025–26 season warm-up continues with a clash against K League 1 outfit FC Seoul on Thursday.
Hansi Flick’s side preseason tour in Asia began with a positive result. Barcelona defeated Japanese side Vissel Kobe 3–1 last Sunday and will be looking to build momentum following that performance.
The The League champions have a mighty squad with no more reinforcements expected to arrive this summer. However, preseason games like this help Flick have a better idea of what he wants his final 2025–26 squad to look like, with Barcelona still trying to offload players in what remains of the transfer window.
FC Seoul have had an up-and-down season. Through 24 K-League 1 games, they’ve won nine, drawn nine and lost six. Yet, they’ve won three of their last four league matches and will be adamant to have a good showing against one of the best teams in the world.
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s guide to Barcelona’s second pre-season friendly.
FC Seoul vs. Barcelona Head-to-Head Record
This is the first fixture between FC Seoul and Barcelona.
|
FC Seoul |
Barcelona |
|---|---|
|
FC Seoul 4–1 Pohang Steelers – 6/29/25 |
Vissel Kobe 1–3 Barcelona – 7/27/25 |
|
FC Seoul 0–1 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC – 7/2/25 |
Athletic Club 0–3 Barcelona – 5/25/25 |
|
FC Seoul 1–0 Ulsan HD – 7/20/25 |
Barcelona 2–3 Villarreal – 5/18/25 |
|
Jeju SK 3–2 FC Seoul – 7/23/25 |
Espanyol 0–2 Barcelona – 5/15/25 |
|
Daejeon Hana Citizen 0–1 FC Seoul – 7/27/2 |
Barcelona 4-3 Real Madrid – 5/11/25 |
|
Country |
Channel |
|---|---|
|
United States and Rest of World (Except South Korea) |
Barcelona YouTube Channel |
FC Seoul sit fourth in K League 1 after a rollercoaster of a season so far. Still, they’ve been surging lately and are just two points back of second place.
Former Manchester United player Jesse Lingard is Seoul’s talisman. Through 24 games this season, the former England international has seven goals and three assists, including the match-winner last time out.
The Brazilian duo of Anderson Oliveira and Lucas Rodrigues are also players to watch. They’re Seoul’s starting wingers and have contributed 16 goal involvements between them this season.
FC Seoul Predicted Lineup vs. Barcelona (4-4-2): Kang; Park, Al-Arab, Kim, Kim; Jung, Hwang, Oliveira, Rodrigues; Lingard, Klimala
Barcelona started their preseason on the right foot and Flick will look to continue assessing his squad by making wholesale changes to his starting lineup.
Dani Olmo, Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong, Jules Koundé and Ronald Araújo could all get the nod from the start after being deployed as substitutes against Vissel Kobe.
It’s also likely that youngsters Roony Bardghji, Dro and Jofre Torrents make appearances in the second half, looking to impress so Flick opts to keep them with the senior team come the start of the season.
Marcus Rashford should also get a more extensive look as he slowly builds up his fitness having joined Barcelona less than two weeks ago. It might be too early for him to start, but he should get more minutes in this match.
Eric García was sidelined during training ahead of the match as he nurses a minor muscular problem, so Flick could opt to be cautious and rest the former Manchester City man.
Barcelona Predicted Lineup vs. FC Seoul (4-2-3-1): garrie; Koundé, Araújo, Martínez, balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphainha; Lewandowski
The gap of quality between both sides is significant and it will be more than evident on the pitch on Thursday.
Sure, Flick will look to utilize pre-season matches to experiment new things and Barcelona players are still knocking off some rust after almost two months off, but they still should cruise to a comfortable victory.
Lamine Yamal will score his first goal with the No.10 shirt and Rashford will open his Barcelona account with a second half strike.
Prediction: FC Seoul 1–4 Barcelona
