Athletic Bilbao won a first trophy in 31 years as a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp secured the Spanish Super Cup with a 5-1 aggregate victory.<\/p>\n
Bilbao won the first leg 4-0 but Barcelona threatened a comeback with Lionel Messi’s close-range finish.<\/p>\n
Barca defender Gerard Pique was sent-off after the break and Aritz Aduriz struck late on to seal it for Bilbao.<\/p>\n
The visitors had Kike Sola sent-off late on, but the celebrations for Bilbao had already begun.<\/p>\n
It was ultimately a disappointing display for Barcelona who, despite plenty of possession, failed to threaten often enough.
\nTough night for Messi and Suarez<\/p>\n
After Barcelona’s humiliating defeat in the first leg, Athletic Bilbao knew Luis Enrique’s side would be determined to make amends.<\/p>\n
The reigning European champions lined up with Messi, Luis Suarez and Pedro in attack but the visitors had done their homework and the trio were well marshalled throughout.<\/p>\n
Whenever Messi had the ball, at least two players crowded round the Argentina international and his inability to get into the game left Suarez isolated.<\/p>\n
Pedro’s swan song?<\/strong> The forward was full of running but his finishing let him down when it mattered, most notably when he missed the ball completely when a corner routine was worked to him on the edge of the area in the first half.<\/p>\n Pedro failed to find the target with another chance after the break and was eventually replaced in the 68th minute.<\/p>\n Defensive concerns for Barcelona<\/strong> Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was named on the bench after conceding eight goals in his last two games, with Chile international Claudio Bravo starting in his place.<\/p>\n Barcelona’s attacking intent often left them exposed at the back, and any hopes of getting the goals they needed ended when Pique was needlessly sent-off midway through the second half. The defender angrily remonstrated with the linesman and the referee produced a straight red.<\/p>\n After a brief spell of Barca dominance, Jeremy Mathieu gifted possession to Aduriz, leaving the forward one-on-one with Bravo and, after his initial effort was saved, Aduriz side-footed home the rebound to put the game beyond Barcelona.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Athletic Bilbao won a first trophy in 31 years as a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp secured the Spanish Super Cup with a 5-1 aggregate victory. Bilbao won the first leg 4-0 but Barcelona threatened a comeback with Lionel Messi’s close-range finish. Barca defender Gerard Pique was sent-off after the break and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":144186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-144185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPedro, a reported target for Manchester United, had Barcelona’s better opportunities in the opening stages but was unable to make them count.<\/p>\n
\nEnrique heads into the new season with some concerns at the back.<\/p>\n