Overmars injured on debut

Overmars making his debut against Arsenal

Arsenal 1-2 Barcelona

Marc Overmars went off injured on his debut for Barcelona in a hotly contested pre-season friendly against Arsenal.

Overmars was substituted at half-time after being clattered by former team-mate Lee Dixon.

Dixon tackled Overmars from behind and Barcelona's new £25m signing was taken off with an ankle injury.

Arsenal had kept the former Gunners star quiet but they were still beaten 2-1 in the Amsterdam Centenary Tournament.

New £7m Cameroon signing Lauren looked promising and almost scored on his debut.

Barcelona captain Josep Guardiola scored the first goal when he slammed a penalty past David Seaman.

Indecisive

Arsenal pulled back the deficit thanks to Lithuanian trialist Tomas Danilevicius.

Tomas scored a fine goal but it was not long before Barcelona were back in front.

David Seaman's indecisive punch allowed Philip Cocu to head in a corner to make it 2-1 before half-time.

Former Gunner Emmanuel Petit made his Barcelona debut in the second half and there plenty of chances for both sides.

But neither could beat the keeper and Barcelona claimed the points.

Afterwards Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said he was pleased with his team's performance.

He said: "I was not bothered about the final score it was a good performance which I was after.

"I thought Lauren had a good first half."