Barcelona's 'triangular' match? Unusual preseason fixture explained

Udinese host both LaLiga champions Barcelona and Premier League side Nottingham Forest on Saturday in a triangular preseason tournament that will feature three 45-minute matches back-to-back.

The inaugural Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup takes a round-robin format and will kick off with the Serie A team taking on Forest at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine, Italy.

Forest will then play Barça before the tournament concludes with the Spanish champions facing the hosts.

All teams, therefore, will get 90 minutes of football in total to put their players through their paces. Barça's own preview of the days event even billed it as "FC Barcelona v Nottingham Forest v Udinese Calcio" and describes it as "an atypical evening of football."

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It is a novel approach to preseason as all three teams prepare for the new campaign in their respective leagues, although the general idea of a tournament is not unprecedented.

In 2002, for example, Barça last took part in a similar competition with another Italian club, Parma, and Dutch side Ajax, although those matches were 90 minutes long and played over multiple days. The Emirates Cup, hosted by Arsenal, is another example of a triangular tournament played over the course of a weekend.

There have also been examples in which teams have played two games in one day in preseason, fielding two different squads. Last summer, for example, Liverpool's fringe players beat Athletic Club 4-1 at Anfield, and an entirely different XI representing the then-Premier League champions beat a team representing the same Spanish club 3-2.

In Italy, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, there have been examples of three 45-minute round-robin matches, including the Trofeo Birra Moretti, which was played between 1997 and 2008.

Perhaps the most similar competition to Saturday's Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup that Barça have participated in took place in 2001. On that occasion, Barça organized a triangular tournament with Espanyol and Real Sociedad that consisted of three 30-minute matches, culminating with the Blaugrana winning the competition after a draw with La Real and victory over Espanyol.