Eric and Pau Víctor start for Catalonia in win against Costa Rica

The Catalonia team ran out 2-0 winners against Costa Rica and featured two blaugranes on the pitch from kick-off in Eric Garcia and Pau Víctor. There was also blaugrana representation in the stands as president Joan Laporta and players Gerard Martín and Marc Casadó watched on.

Party atmosphere at the Estadi Johan Cruyff

Gerard López's side won with two second half goals in this celebration of Catalan football at one of FC Barcelona's homes, the Estadi Johan Cruyff, with 5,352 in attendance. Despite ultimately furthering the festivities by winning, it was the Central American side who dominated the opening minutes.

Playing the game as preparation for upcoming World Cup qualifiers and the Gold Cup, Costa Rica showed more attacking intent at first, but their efforts soon fell away. The Catalans had only had one training session together, but their greater quality started to show as the game went on.

45 minutes for Eric and Pau Víctor

Former blaugrana Jutglà and Pau Víctor both started to swing the momentum, but no goals came in the first half, which featured two blaugrana players, with Eric Garcia bringing out the ball from the heart of the defence and Pau Víctor starting from the left, who put in a great effort, before both were substituted for the second half.

Total domination in the second half

Nine new faces after the break and the Catalan team created many more chances, with speed on the wings, and all indications were that penalties wouldn't be needed to decide the trophy winners on this day to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Catalan Football Federation.

Antoniu Roca and Aleñà score the goals

Espanyol player Antoniu Roca opened the scoring from the edge of the area after a good team move (1-0, min. 71) and right at the end of the game, La Masía graduate Carles Aleñà headed a Jofre Carreras header in to complete the win and Catalan football was celebrated into the night.