Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele sends Juventus to sleep twice with superb pre-season display | OneFootball

Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele gave his manager, Xavi, plenty of food for thought with a virtuoso display against Juventus in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday night.

The two European heavyweights went head-to-head in Dallas, Texas, and all eyes were once again on Barça’s star summer signing Robert Lewandowski.

But it was the much-maligned Dembele who stole the show, netting two superb first-half goals before being subbed off at half-time.

The French winger, who has been linked with a move away from Camp Nou at various points this summer, opened the scoring in the 34th minute with a superb goal after cutting in from the right wing before lashing the ball past Wojciech Szczesny.

And the 25-year-old, who joined Barcelona in 2017 from Borussia Dortmund in a deal that may eventually cost as much as £135.5 million, netted his second of the night shortly after Moise Kean had equalised for Juve.

Cutting in from the right again, Dembele showed great dribbling and composure, picking out the bottom corner of Szczesny’s net with his left foot this time.

Sheer class.

Barcelona fans haven’t always seen this level of quality from the inconsistent France international over the past five years and that’s what makes it so frustrating for them. They know he’s capable of magic.

“Dembele? Today he has shown what he is capable of,” Xavi was quoted saying by Barça Universal after the match. “He is special, there are not many like him. He needs to make a difference and it has to to be more consistent.”

What does Ousmane Dembele’s sleep celebration mean?

On both occasions after scoring, Dembele celebrated by pretending to be asleep.

But what does this celebration mean?

Well, it’s called the ‘Night, Night’ and has been made popular recently by NBA star Steph Curry.

The basketball icon reacted to Dembele copying his celebration by tweeting: “A movement!!”

Expect to see this celebration popping up at more stadiums across Europe as the 2022-23 season gets underway.

Barcelona and Juventus play out 2-2 draw

Despite Dembele’s heroics, Barcelona failed to win their latest pre-season friendly.

Kean popped up early in the second half to earn Juventus a 2-2 draw.