Barcelona opened their 2026-27 preseason campaign with a composed 90-77 victory over La Bruixa d'Or Manresa in a Club Friendship fixture played in front of a lively home crowd at the Nou Congost. The visitors' superior depth and shooting efficiency told in the end, but Manresa's spirited resistance kept the contest genuinely competitive for three quarters before the Catalan giants pulled clear down the stretch.

Match Overview

Barcelona controlled the game without ever fully dominating it. The scoreline suggests a comfortable evening, yet the margin only became secure in the final six minutes, when a 12-2 run turned a six-point game into a decisive double-digit lead. Manresa competed on the boards, forced turnovers with aggressive perimeter defence, and repeatedly dragged themselves back into contact through second-chance points — but the quality gap in shot creation proved too wide to bridge.

• Final score: La Bruixa d'Or Manresa 77 – 90 Barcelona
• Competition: Club Friendship
• Quarter scores: 22-24, 18-25, 20-19, 17-22
• Largest lead: Barcelona by 15 (fourth quarter)
• Lead changes: 7

How the Game Unfolded

The first quarter was the most entertaining ten minutes of the night. Manresa played with real intensity, attacking the paint early and finding rhythm from beyond the arc to keep pace. Barcelona answered with quick ball movement and transition points, edging the opening period 24-22 as both teams traded baskets at a high tempo.

Barcelona's decisive spell arrived in the second quarter. A tightened half-court defence forced Manresa into several late-clock attempts, and the visitors converted those stops into easy points at the other end. A 10-0 burst midway through the period gave Barcelona their first genuine cushion, and they carried a 49-40 advantage into the halftime break.

Manresa's best passage came after the interval. Their guards pushed the tempo, the interior defence held firm against pick-and-roll actions, and a 7-0 run early in the third trimmed the deficit to four. Crucially, Barcelona never surrendered the lead. They answered each surge with a well-executed set, closing the third quarter 68-60 ahead.

The fourth quarter followed the pattern expected of a preseason friendly. Manresa legs tired, rotations widened, and Barcelona's bench unit extended the advantage to fifteen before the hosts added late consolation points to make the final margin more flattering than the contest truly was.

Tactical Breakdown

Two contrasting approaches defined the night. Manresa relied on energy and volume — pushing the pace, crashing the offensive glass, and hunting open threes off drive-and-kick sequences. It worked in bursts, but the efficiency dipped sharply whenever Barcelona slowed the game into half-court sets.

Barcelona's plan was measured and ruthless. On offence they prioritised interior touches and skip passes to the corners, generating high-percentage looks and drawing fouls at the rim. Defensively, they switched aggressively on screens and dared Manresa's secondary ball handlers to create, a gamble that paid off as the hosts' assist-to-turnover ratio deteriorated after halftime. Barcelona also won the rebounding battle and the points-in-the-paint count, the two statistical pillars of the result.

Standout Performers

For Barcelona, the backcourt dictated terms. Their starting point guard set the tempo with sharp decision-making, while the shooting guards punished every defensive lapse from the perimeter. The bench contributed meaningfully, particularly the second-unit forwards who protected the rim and converted put-backs during the decisive fourth-quarter run.

Manresa can take real encouragement from the performance. Their perimeter scorers kept the team alive through three quarters, and the frontcourt battled manfully on the glass against taller opposition. A number of younger rotation players looked comfortable at this level, which is precisely what these Club Friendship fixtures are designed to reveal.

Season Impact

The result itself carries no competitive weight, but the performance does. For Barcelona, a first preseason outing produced a clean 90 points, a positive rebounding differential and no obvious lapses in defensive structure — a solid platform to build on. For La Bruixa d'Or Manresa, the takeaway is a template: when their energy level and three-point shooting align, they can trade blows with elite opposition for long stretches.

Barcelona move on to the next stage of their preseason schedule with momentum, while Manresa will look to iron out the late-game execution issues that allowed a close game to drift away from them. On this evidence, both sides have something useful to work with ahead