Aug 18: Two goals from Arda Turan and one from Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 3-0 win over Sevilla in the Spanish Super Cup second leg to seal a 5-0 aggregate victory.
The La Liga and King’s Cup champions yesterday led 2-0 after the first leg in Seville and Turan’s opening goal early in the first half set Barca on their way to a big win at a packed Nou Camp.
The Turkish midfielder picked up a pass from Messi in the ninth minute, ran in on goal and drove a left-foot shot past goalkeeper Sergio Rico. Sevilla’s Vicente Iborra had a 30th-minute penalty kept out by Claudio Bravo after Samuel Umtiti was penalised for a handball.
Turan’s second came one minute after the re-start when he launched an audacious curled shot from 30 yards to stun the Sevilla keeper and send the ball into the top corner.
Messi made sure of Barca’s first trophy of the season when he headed Lucas Digne’s pass out of Rico’s reach. “To win a title before the start of La Liga is great,” Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets told Telecinco TV.
“We did a fantastic job last season and we are hungry for titles.” Barca were without Neymar, who was on Olympic duty with Brazil, and injured trio Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Jeremy Mathieu and Andres Iniesta.
But coach Luis Enrique handed new signings Umtiti, Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne their first competitive starts. A minute’s silence was observed before kick-off in honour of former FIFA president Joao Havelange, who died this week.
Jorge Sampaoli’s Sevilla, who lost the UEFA Super Cup 3-2 to Real Madrid last week, made a strong start and in the third minute Wissam Ben Yedder forced Bravo into a full-stretch save to clear his diagonal shot from inside the box.
But just when Sevilla were playing at their best, Turan scored. The night got worse for the visitors when Bravo denied Iborra the equaliser and on the stroke of halftime, Gabriel Mercado’s header from Mariano’s cross hit the right post.
“It’s always difficult to play against Barcelona and more so when you have a 2-0 deficit from the opening leg,” Sevilla’s Luciano Vietto told Telecinco.
“We did our best but it was not to be.” Barca dominated the second half and had to play the last 11 minutes of the game down to 10 men after Javier Mascherano picked up an injury with Luis Enrique having made all his substitutions.
The Super Cup is Spain’s traditional season opener between the winners of the league and King’s Cup. Barca won both last season and have now lifted 12 Super Cups. (AGENCIES)
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