By Toby Prince
Athletic Bilbao clinched the Spanish Super Cup at the expense of Barcelona with a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou on Monday night.
Lionel Messi gave Barca a first half lead, but the Catalan giants never looked like they were capable of reversing Friday night’s 4-0 first leg defeat in Bilbao.
After Gerard Pique was sent off in the second half, Aritz Aduriz made the scores level on the night and moved Athletic into a 5-1 aggregate lead.
Kike Sola was sent off late on for the visitors, but Luis Enrique’s men were beaten by that point.
Here is what we learned as Barcelona missed out on a trophy for the first time this calendar year.
Bilbao are title contenders
Any club who could accomplish such an impressive victory over European giants, Barcelona, is definitely a contender for their domestic title. This is a team that inflicted the biggest defeat in Luis Enrique’s Barca era and also the first time the Catalans lost by a 4-0 margin after Bayern Munich’s annihilation in 2013 .
It took the Les Leones 31-years to win a major trophy after they won the La Liga and Copa del Ray double in 1984, which meant they were automatically awarded the Spanish Super Cup without playing a game.
Eight of their starting 11 at Camp Nou were born after the club’s last trophy success.
With performances like this, fans of the club should be rest assured that more trophies are on the way.
Barca are beatable
With just two games played thus far by the Catalan club, it is getting clearer that clubs now understand the mystery of how they can be unlocked and caged.
The side faced two Spanish sides in the Uefa Super Cup and Spanish Super cup finals respectively, but struggled to win any of the games convincingly.
In both legs against Athletic Bilbao, Barca were totally outclassed and only managed to sneak a win over Sevilla.
In the domestic league, there’s even bigger problem for Barcelona because the two Madrid sides are stronger mathematically than the sides they struggled to overcome.
The defence needs some work
Perhaps this game was an anomaly, as Barcelona were doing all the chasing, leaving them more exposed than normal, but their defending in pre-season has not been great.
They leaked four against Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup and four against Athletic in the first leg of this final, with another Aritz Aduriz’s goal on Monday meaning they’ve now conceded nine goals in three competitive matches this season.
At times Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano looked commanding, but there were plenty of moments when they wobbled.
On top of that, Pique lost his head in the second half, screaming expletives in the assistant referee’s face and being sent off, which was possibly the moment Barca’s faint hopes completely disappeared.
Iniesta isn’t Xavi
Xavi Hernandez might not have been a super regular during his last days at Barcelona, but the 35-year-old provided leadership, experience and foresight, something the club is lacking right now. Born in Terrassa, Barcelona, a product of the famous La Masia, Xavi was used sparingly under Luis Enrique, but yet commanded loads of respect in the dressing room due to his charisma and leadership qualities.
An imposing figure, Xavi was a born leader who took up the mantle as club captain after Carles Puyol retired.
But it is not just Xavi’s values or leadership qualities that make him probably the best player in Spain’s history. “His empathy, humility, his ability to let his team-mates increase their skills with his style of football has been a key fact in his career, in the context of a modern football in which fame, media and egos have left this sport bloated” says former Spain coach, Inaki Saez.
Aftermath of the player’s exit, Barcelona are struggling to win games and trophies. They needed a miracle from Pedro to overcome Sevilla 5-4 to clinch the Uefa Super Cup and couldn’t provide answers when Athletic Bilbao came knocking.
The MSN needs its Brazilian star
Those are the three words which scares the life out of defenders across Europe this season.
However, take one away from the trio, though, and they’re a little bit easier to get on top of.
Messi huffed and puffed and Suarez’s tail was up against Athletic, but the Basque side defended well and managed to pull in enough men to keep them quiet enough.
That may have been different if Neymar – who has had his fair share of running against Athletic – was playing.
Messi did grab Barcelona’s goal at the end of the first half, but four never looked like arriving.
