Athletic Bilbao had more than a surprise for Barcelona on Friday night, demolishing the La Liga and UEFA Champions League winners with 4 un-replied goals in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
The Blaugrana has now conceded 8 goals in just two matches and the season has yet to kick off in Spain. They had to churn out 5 goals to drown Sevilla’s 4 to win the UEFA Super Cup narrowly after extra-time on Tuesday night.
Aritz Aduriz was the hero on the night as he put a dent into Barça’s sextuple aspirations for the year with a man-of-the-match performance scoring a hat-trick, following Mikel San Jose’s stunning long range opener from midfield.
Barcelona played 120 minutes against a resilient Sevilla side just 3 days before facing Bilbao, so it was understandable that Luis Enrique needed to make several changes to the line-up from the one that won the UEFA Super Cup.
Five new players made the starting line-up, while 2 players played off their regular positions. Manchester United target, Pedro Rodriguez, surprisingly made the first XI as he played upfront with Lionel Messi and Luiz Suarez.
The game lacked the usual all-Spanish battle taste from the first blast of the whistle. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes from the kick-off that a real chance was created, and afterwards came series of knocks on Barcelona’s door by the Bilbao attack.
The opener came in the 13th minute as an impulsive Ter Stegen ran out of his 18-yard box to head a clearance, only for it to find Mikel San Jose who immediately fired to find the back of the net from 50 yards and send a packed San Mames into a frenzy.
Barcelona pressed hard after going down, trying to get the equalizer but Bilbao defense had an answer to everything thrown at them, and that was the way the first half would end.
The second half started with Barcelona asking all the questions. Pedro hit the cross bar, and couple other chances couldn’t make it past Athletic goalkeeper Iraizoz.
Just 7 minutes to the hour mark Athletic Bilbao doubled the lead through Aduriz, who out-jumped Mascherano to nod in Sabin Merino’s cross.
Aduriz volleyed in his second and Bilbao’s third goal in the 62nd minute after an error by the Barça defense failing to snuff out a cross into the box. Aduriz bagged his hat-trick 6 minutes later with a spot kick after the referee called for a penalty sighting Dani Alves’ push during a corner kick.
The second leg is slated for Monday at the Camp Nou and Barcelona will need something short of a miracle if they are to continue their sextuple dream.
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