Barcelona secure first trophy of the season thanks to sensational Dembele strike
Ousmane Dembele’s spectacular goal 12 minutes from time settled the first-ever Spanish Super Cup played outside Spain, as Barcelona came from behind to overcome Sevilla 2-1 in the Moroccan city of Tangier. Lionel Messi began life as Barça captain for the contest while Arthur and Clement Lenglet were given their competitive debuts, the latter facing his former club, while Rafinha also started for the first time under Ernesto Valverde. Pablo Sarabia, who finished with aplomb as his curling leftfoot shot from just inside the area beat Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The flag was immediately raised but, after consulting VAR, Sarabia was shown to be onside and the decision overruled for the first goal awarded by VAR in Spanish football.
Messi almost created an equaliser on 17 minutes as he skipped through the Sevilla defence to set up Jordi Alba down the left, but the full-back’s first- a post before the ball spun across goal, where Piqué was on hand to sweep home.
Valverde’s men sought to build on their equaliser after the break, with Ivan Rakitic on for Rafinha and Philippe Coutinho replacing Arthur, and Messi was again dangerous when forcing Vaclik to punch away yet another free-kick. At the other end, Franco Vázquez headed on to the bar from a corner, while Sevilla introduced both Silva and Vidal. Vaclik then made a superb double save from Suárez and Messi, but just when it seemed the game was heading for extratime, Dembele struck in the 78th minute to settle things as his thunderbolt from the edge of the box flew past Vaclik and off the underside of the bar. Even so, Sevilla had a great chance to restore parity at the death when Vidal rounded the keeper and was preparing to tap home when Ter Stegen barged him over in the area, but the Barca stopper easily saved Wissam Ben Yedder’s weak spot-kick.
The result ensured Barça’s 13th Super Cup victory, with Messi lifting his first trophy as new Barcelona captain and his 33rd as a player. Barca now have one more friendly against Boca Juniors before their league opener against Alavés, while Sevilla hope to continue their progress in the Europa League before taking on Rayo Vallecano this weekend.
Valverde: ‘High hopes’ for Dembele
Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde says he has ‘high hopes’ for Ousmane Dembele this season after the 21-year-old’s Super Cup winner against Sevilla. “We have high hopes for Dembele because he has some incredible qualities and unbalances teams, so that gives us a lot,” insisted the coach. “We want him to take steps forward as he is still young and has a long way to go. It’s true Sevilla made it very difficult for us at first after they scored an early goal, and it was tough to overcome them, although given how the game progressed in the second half, I thought we were closer to winning. They started the season before us, while it was our first day of competitive action, and it ended well.” Modric intent on Inter Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is still intent on joining Inter Milan and has instructed his agent to formalise a deal. The Italians are understood to have offered the Croatian a six-year contract, which would see him play in Serie A for four years before spending two at their Chinese sister club Jiangsu Suning. Nonetheless, reports in Spain say Madrid will offer Modric a new deal which will significantly in- crease his wages at the Santiago Bernabeu, while it is also said the player has given Inter a verbal agreement he will join them, although his contract with the European champions is believed to have a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ he could leave at his discretion. Meanwhile, Inter boss Luciano Spalletti played down suggestions of a transfer, but admitted ‘he would make us even stronger’.
La Liga confirm Facebook deal
La Liga have announced that every single league match over the next three seasons will be broadcast live on Facebook in countries including Pakistan and India. All 1,140 games will be broadcast on the social media platform in the nations, along with Sri Lanka, Afghan- istan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Sony Pictures Network were the previous holders of the rights to league matches in the region.
“We are really happy to be on a free-to-air service in such an important territory as the Indian sub-continent,” Alfredo Bermejo, the league’s head of digital strategy, told Reuters. “One of our aims for the last two years has been to offer content to the widest audience possible, so going into partnership with Facebook, which has 270 million users in India alone, is key to us.”
Eleven Sports, which will broadcast in the UK this campaign, will show one La Liga and one Serie A match per week via Facebook this coming season.