Barcelona is a far worse team than Manchester City and everyone knows this, like if they face each other in UCL quarter finals or something, do you have a doubt about City winning that? I have zero doubt that City would be able to win easily without a trouble. This is just a friendly and I can see at least 7 players that may not play during the season, from both sides combined.
So this was just fitness check and nothing more, plus this also makes them money too, friendlies are not free tickets, people still pay tickets for this and I think it is quite nice to see something like this, allows people to have a better chance and a greater result, also means merch deals as well, like getting jerseys or whatever for people who go to these games. So this was just for the money and fitness, nothing more was intended for this game and do not make any predictions based on the 2-2 tie result and predict anything about the season.
Barcelona, who currently still needs a lot of quality players, will certainly always try the young players they have to get players like Lamine Yamal who can be a wonderkid.