Spanish Super Cup: Barcelona vs. Sevilla: Barcelona Champions with 4-0 Rout; Lionel Messi in Complete Form
The Catalan giants showed the world why they are included in the best teams of the world, as Barcelona dominate the game throughout and gave Sevilla no chance of scoring a single goal.
With Pep Guardiola's first team resting in the first leg of the Super Cup, Sevilla outclassed them at their home by ending the game 3-1, even though it was Barcelona who went off the pitch on a winning 1-0 note at half time. In the second half, it was all Sevilla as Kanoute thrashed a brace at Barcelona's face to win it for Sevilla.
Today, Barcelona were hosting Sevilla at Camp Nou and the first title of the season was at stake. The match was touted to be a total thriller, as Guardiola's first team was back to play the match and he had a lot in store for his "tough" opponents.
The match kicked off with Barcelona playing their best 11, even though David Villa, Andres Iniesta and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were not in the starting line-up of the team; it was, nonetheless, a tough side altogether. On the other hand, Sevilla did not introduce Kanoute or Fabiano in the first team as they were resting the two strikers for their important Champions League qualifying game against Braga coming up this Tuesday.
Barcelona took an early lead in the 12th minute as it was the Spanish youngster Pedro who blasted a shot in from the right flank and Konko was the defender who accidently turned it into an own goal. With Barcelona mounting up with an early lead, it was hard for the Sevilla players to bring them back down.
After the first goal, it was all Barcelona and their amazing style of play. They had amazing possession of the ball and barely let Sevilla have it until after the 20th minute mark; it was the amazing Argentinean magician Lionel Messi who outran the defensive lines of Sevilla as Xavi Hernandez, the midfield sensation, gave a wonderful through ball to help Lionel Messi put his name on the scoreboard. Later on, during the 42nd minute, Dani Alves made a wonderful cut inside the 18 yard box and gave a short pass to Lionel Messi, who showed the world that he isn't known to be the best player in the world for nothing; he scored an extraordinary goal with his weaker right foot as he chipped the ball into the near post to make it 3-0 for Barcelona.
By the time the referee blew the half time whistle, the game for Sevilla was all but over. Barcelona looked to be in good form as they didn't let Sevilla take possession of the ball much and kept going on with their possession play. After the first half, Pep Guardiola decided to change things around a bit, as he introduced Iniesta and Bojan was taken off, while David Villa came on for Pedro. The equation was simple: it was Lionel Messi who was playing as a floating attacker while David Villa stuck to the left flank. Andres Iniesta was more of a right attacking midfielder as he helped both of them with his short passes.
On the other hand, Sevilla tried to change the course of the game as they introduced Perotti, Cigarini and Luis Fabiano. With these three introduced, Sevilla now looked to be a relatively stronger side, but it was Barcelona all over the place and these three players could not really do anything for Sevilla.
With Barcelona possessing the ball a bit too much, Sevilla started to put pressure on them and tried to play it rough but it didn't really bother the home team. With tackles thrown onto Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta, Pep Guardiola tried to save his key man and took Xavi off as the former Sevilla player, Adriano, was introduced. With the inclusion of Adriano, the game became more defensive but everyone could see that David Villa was left anonymous till now.
The new signing was expected to score a goal but even though he did not find the net, he was able to show his amazing talent with the ball as he made an amazing run from the left to stop an unusual ball from Gerard Pique and showed extraordinary ball control. With the help of that amazing run, he won the team a free kick, which eventually turned into the fourth goal of the game. With Maxwell taking the throw-in, it was taken down by Villa, who gave a wonderful pass to Andres Iniesta. Iniesta made an unselfish attempt at the goal and passed the ball to Lionel Messi, who made no mistake again and converted the amazing pass into a goal and marked his first hat-trick of the season.
Barcelona have already won the first trophy of this season, with the help of the legendary Argentinean, Lionel Messi. It is simply wonderful to see what he can do with the ball at his feet, but of course, it wasn't possible without the whole team, who gave him amazing through balls and helped him utilize his quick and talented feet to put them into the net.
It was all Barcelona as seen by the world, but things during the La Liga would be different as Jose Mourinho has taken charge of Real Madrid and they are also a pretty tough side. Last year, Barcelona won the La Liga by defeating Real Madrid in both the legs, but can they pull it off this time? We'll have to wait for the Spanish La Liga to begin on the 24th of this month to answer that question.
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