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Messi leads Barca to dramatic Super Cup win

Comment: 0 August 18th, 2011 by: admin

Golden boy of Barcelona Lionel Messi sent Nou Camp in ecstatic jubilation Wednesday after scoring 2 goals in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup, giving Barca the 3-2 (5-4 aggregate) victory over bitter rivals Real Madrid.

After setting up one scoring another in the previous leg, Messi managed one goal assist in the 15th minute before landing one during the 45th. Madrid managed to rally twice, forcing ties during the 20th and 81st minute with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema respectively.

The game was determined at the 88th minute when Messi, assisted by new signing Cesc Fabregas, rocketed another goal to claim victory.

‘The players have made a super-human effort because we were missing some and those we had were far from their best form,’ said Barca manager Pep Guardiola. ‘Messi isn’t at his best level…we have to congratulate the players for their efforts and character.’

As what may be expected in a match between Barca and Real Madrid, high drama and high tension persisted and exploded beyond the game.

The tempers exploded about six minutes after Messi’s last goal, when Real defender Marcelo lunged at Fabregas in a vicious tackle. The instance led to a scuffle that also involved Real’s Mesut Ozil and Barca’s David Villa.

The two Real players plus David Villa were sent off the field.

Video footage also caught Real manager Jose Mourinho jumping in the middle of the rumble and seemingly pushing a finger into the eye of Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova.

The act incited strong comments from Barca players, calling Mourinho and his antics ‘pathetic’.

‘Mourinho is destroying Spanish football,’ said Gerard Pique. It’s not the first time and it’s always a number of players and the same ones so there has to be some way of stopping them. I hope they adopt the necessary sanctions because every game cannot end this way.’

Further comments came from Xavi Hernandez who addressed Marcelo’s aggressive tackle on Fabregas.

‘Marcelo’s tackle has no place in football,’ he said. ‘Totally shameless, a real shame for football in general this image generated by Real Madrid.’
Mourinho, who has yet to win after eight visits to Nou Camp, expressed frustration over the results of the match.

‘If we said we were happy when we hadn’t won a title we would be hypocrites,’ he said. ‘It’s a small title, but we aren’t happy we didn’t win. What we are happy with is the evolution of the team. We did very well in both games. We were fantastic.’

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