The Spanish Super Cup is developing quite a cachet. From a contest that used to be regarded as no more than a glorified pre-season friendly, it has grown into an event that etches itself into history.
When Barcelona failed to make the right impact in its new three-match format a year ago, they sacked their then manager, Ernest Valverde. While they were fluffing their lines in the final on Sunday, they dramatically lost their spiritual leader.
The red card shown to Lionel Messi in extra-time of the pulsating 3-2 defeat to Athletic Bilbao ensures that the 2021 Super Cup will be remembered well beyond the Basque Country, where Athletic supporters, watching on television, cherished the deserved capture of the title via victories over Real Madrid, in the semi-final, and then Barcelona.
Athletic will take no extra pride from the fact that they now also have the distinction of having frustrated the greatest footballer of his generation so much that he was sent-off for the first time in a club career of more than 750 games. Athletic do not need that landmark to confirm they were the better side on the night.
Nor did Barcelona manager Ronaldo Koeman need to see Messi raise his arm with the intention of hurting Asier Villalibre – the Athletic striker who had scored the second equaliser of the night and proved enough of an irritant to Messi to provoke what the victim later described as a “clear act of aggression” – to know Messi is exasperated. He has spelled it out enough times in the last 12 months.
The red card will bring with it a suspension for Barcelona’s captain, and reduce the number of his remaining matches for the club he has served throughout his professional life. That number looks more and more finite.
Messi wanted to leave Barca six months ago and is actively exploring new horizons for when his contract expires in June.
He will be banned for between one match and four, depending on how successfully Barcelona lobby the Spanish Football Federation to take into account his clean record in terms of club red cards, and their arguments that Villalibre had fouled Messi in the build up to the incident.
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Barca player ratings in Super Cup final
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Marc-Andre Ter Stegen – 6. Tipped a 25th minute shot over as the plan of Marcelino, Athletic’s new coach, to press Barca worked. His players were up for it and would put three past the German – none of which were his fault. Getty Images -
Sergino Dest – 6. Back in side and not always easy for him as Athletic pressed the space behind Dembele. Did OK but taken off at half time, probably as the American is just back from injury. AFP -
Ronald Araujo – 7. Superb in dispossessing Williams and stretched towards a Griezmann first half corner but couldn’t connect. Gave ball away in front of his own goal as the Basques pressed for a winner in the second, but he’s a fantastic young central defender. AP -
Clement Lenglet – 6. Booked. As usual. And led a defence which was undone three times by balls through them and saw a goal against as a result – two of them resulting in goals. AP -
Jordi Alba – 7. Combined with Messi as usual to set up Griezmann opener. Searched for an offside for Athletic’s opener after Di Marcos slipped in front of him – but his defence was undone by a superb Williams’ ball. Set up Griezmann with a cross for Barca’s second. Always a threat on the left. Booked for moaning. AP -
Sergio Busquets – 6. Cut a dispirited figure as he collected the runners up shield after Messi was sent off, but he knew the Basques deserved their victory after taking the game to the Catalans from the start. Getty Images -
Frenkie De Jong – 6. Smashed in extra time in a clash of heads with Raul Garcia which looked like it could be serious. He’ll feel it today, but quickly returned to the pitch – only to be pulled to the ground by the tenacious Basques who’d already knocked Real Madrid out. Moved back to central defender as Barca. AP -
Pedri – 6. Superb young midfielder who was man of the match against Athletic in the league last week, but left the field exhausted. Reuters -
Lionel Messi - 5. In-form and the top scorer in La Liga, the Argentine played through the middle and shot over from distance after 37 minutes as Barca pushed for an opener. Twice involved in the move which led to it, but otherwise quiet and probably not 100 per cent fit, so why did he play 120 minutes? Barca needed their best game changer at the top of his game. What they got was a man sent off for violet conduct in the 120th minute for swinging an arm at an opponent. Reuters -
Ousmane Dembele – 7 Whipped a ball into Messi and fantastic ball to Alba to set up Griezmann for second goal. Otherwise looked tired. AFP -
Antoine Griezmann – 8 Gave ball away after five minutes but began to concentrate and put the ball into the net for the first after 40 minutes and danced in his celebration. Scored the second, steering a ball from Alba at the near post after 76 minutes after Athletic had a Raul Garcia header ruled offside. It was. Just. Smashed a volley wife after 110 minutes as his team chased equaliser. AP -
Oscar Mingueza - 6. On for Dest at half time. His fresh legs had the measure of Munian. Steady. Getty Images -
Miralem Pjanic – 5. On for Pedri 88. Brought on to see the game out found himself on a team conceding two goals in three minutes – the second a superb Williams’ curling shot - and chasing a game with exhausted players (no match photo available). Courtesy FC Barcelona -
Martin Braithwaite – 4. On for Dembele 88. Came on in the minute the Basques equalised and did little in 32 minutes on the pitch. Reuters -
Riqui Puig On for Busquets after 97. The Barça youngster is hugely talented and fans want him to succeed. Barça’s last three coaches have been slightly less enthused (no match photo available). AP -
Trincao On for Lenglet after 106 minutes. Getty Images
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What Barcelona can reassure themselves about is Messi’s commitment to their cause for this season at least. His anger that a possible 35th trophy in their colours had slipped from his grasp as the final whistle approached was palpable.
Messi’s fitness to start the final had been touch-and-go, because he was recuperating from a muscle problem through the previous week.
“He knows himself and we spoke before the game,” said Koeman. “He said was in the right condition and he coped very well.” A superb Messi pass led to the opening goal, scored by Antoine Griezmann, who would later put Barcelona 2-1 up with 13 minutes of the 90 remaining.
Villalibre dragged the match into extra-time by meeting a low cross with the referee about to signal the end of normal time.
Bilbao were the more energised team after that, their confidence epitomised by Inaki Williams, who struck the winning goal after neatly stepping away from Griezmann and lofting an angled shot in off the post. “The best goal of my career,” Williams called it.
The goal will be cherished for a long time in the Basque Country, where Williams’s parents, refugees from West Africa, settled in the mid-1990s.
He was born in Bilbao, and grew up attached to Athletic, a club where a sense of belonging is cultivated in a unique way. Athletic only field players with roots, through birth or parentage, in the Basque Country.
That bond with their region defines them. They were in the Super Cup, because they reached the final of last season’s Copa del Rey, a final, against near-neighbours Real Sociedad which is yet to be played because both clubs asked to postpone it.
They want supporters to be able to attend, which has been impossible under the public health conditions in place since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.
Sunday’s triumph – in an empty stadium in Andalucia – gave Athletic their first trophy since the Super Cup of 2015 and meant the 12th defeat in a final of Messi’s decorated career. The concern for his employers is that it may be the last final he plays in their jersey.
There is still this season’s Copa del Rey, in which Barcelona take on suburban neighbours Cornella in the second round on Thursday, and the Champions League, where they meet Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 next month. But neither Koeman nor Messi would dare think fragile Barcelona are favourites in either competition.
