Harrison, N.J. — The only thing that seemed to be missing was the Benny Hill theme song when at least four Barcelona fans jumped onto the pitch at Red Bull Arena as a friendly between the Red Bulls and FC Barcelona came to an end.
The incident occurred just as Barcelona was cruising to a 2-0 victory over New York in the La Liga club’s final game of their preseason U.S. tour. The Harrison venue was the club’s fourth stop after playing games in Miami, Las Vegas and Dallas.
With play down in the Red Bulls’ end during stoppage time, a Barcelona fan sprinted from the opposite side of the field before stopping in front of a Barcelona player. He was quickly tackled by a stadium employee, but just then another fan jumped onto the field toward the La Liga team’s bench before he was tackled by a uniformed Harrison police officer and held down by two yellow-vested security personnel.
This was the scene as a number of fans jumped onto the pitch tonight at the end of the #RBNY Barcelona game. pic.twitter.com/2IfchQHcBE
— Christian Arnold (@C_Arnold01) July 31, 2022
A third fan took the opportunity to charge the pitch before being chased and eventually tackled by security while two others were apprehended on the far side of the field. With security appearing to be spread thin, a final fan jumped onto the pitch and was able to get in the middle of a group of Red Bull and Barcelona players before he was grabbed by security.
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The incident didn’t mare the jubilant atmosphere as a sold-out crowd packed into Red Bull Arena for the friendly. A largely Barcelona crowd had spent hours tailgating outside the stadium and inside packed the aisles during warmups to watch the teams prepare.
Ousmane Dembélé scored Barcelona’s first goal of the night in the 4oth minute and Memphis Depay scored to make it 2-0 in the 80th minute. The La Liga side passed the ball for more than 70% of the game on Saturday night.
