The hosts' Federico Bernardeschi proved to be the star of the evening at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, scoring twice in the opening 12 minutes to all-but wrap up victory in a quickfire start from the Italian outfit.

And Barca - still lacking the presence of Lionel Messi and Neymar who returned to training this week - were unable to respond aside from Suarez's smart sliding finish in the 17th minute.

The two clubs were appearing in the latest instalment of the International Champions Cup as the pre-season tournament moved on to Europe from its spells in the US, Australia and China.

While many friendlies have started at a pedestrian pace of late, Fiorentina were in no mood to take things slowly despite there being three weeks until they kick off their Serie A campaign.

It took just four minutes for Bernardeschi to open the scoring, nodding home Borja Valero's inch-perfect cross to open the scoring.

Valero skipped away from Sergio Busquets on the right, nutmegging the esteemed midfielder in the process, before spotting the advancing Viola winger and dinking the ball on to his head to offer a simple chance for him to beat Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Just eight minutes later and Bernardeschi had doubled that lead with Joaquin the provider this time, again down the right. The 34-year-old looked to have a youthful spring in his step and his driven pass was smartly finished first-time by his Italian team-mate.

Suarez latched on to a brilliant pass from Ivan Rakitic at full stretch to halve the deficit but while Barca threatened, there were to be no further goals.

Fiorentina move on to the final ICC clash of this pre-season, a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Wednesday.

'There's satisfaction for the team and the fans tonight,' two-goal hero Bernardeschi said after the game: 'Usually, you only see a 2-1 against Barca on television! I was lucky.

'We're working hard every day. My message to the fans is that this team is strong and will go far.'

(dailymail.co.uk)