Barcelona’s players celebrate after scoring a goal during the UEFA Super Cup final football match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC in Tbilisi.
DPA/Tbilisi
Supersub Pedro - who is reportedly poised to join Manchester United - hit Barca’s winner three minutes from the end of extra-time, with what could turn out to be his final goal for the Catalans.
Lionel Messi scored twice for Barca, who took a 4-1 lead thanks to other goals from Rafinha and Luis Suarez. Sevilla - who took an early lead through Ever Banega - forced extra-time thanks to late strikes from Jose Antonio Reyes, Kevin Gameiro and Yevhen Konoplyanka.
“We were brilliant in attack tonight but terrible in defence,” said Barca’s Javier Mascherano. “At 4-1 we should really have killed the game off. Instead, we let them back into it in the silliest way possible.”
Mascherano expressed the hope that Pedro “will decide to stay with us in the end. He is a very special player.”
Messi echoed Mascherano’s words by saying: “Pedro really deserves this; he is a great team player. We started the match very well,” said Messi, “but we relaxed at 4-1 and everything became very complicated from then on.”
Barca coach Luis Enrique commented: “Football can be a very surprising game. Just when you think you are cruising to victory, things can start to go very wrong.
“But we reacted well to their comeback, and I think we just about deserved to win in the end ... I am very happy with this latest trophy.”
Sevilla winger Vitolo said: “This was a very cruel defeat for us. We did everything to come back and force extra-time ... At the very least, we deserved to get to a penalty shootout.”
It was the highest scoring Super Cup showpiece since the game was introduced in 1972 as the curtain-raiser to the European season.
Barca are now level at the top with AC Milan with five triumphs.
They went into the match with Pedro on the bench despite Neymar being absent due to mumps. Earlier Tuesday, Pedro had told Barca he wanted to leave the club.
His winning goal was his 99th strike for Barca and also the second time he had hit the winning goal in the Super Cup - the first time being in 2009 against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Banega gave Sevilla a shock lead in the fourth minute with a precise free-kick, only for fellow Argentine Messi to quickly turn the score around with two handsome free-kick goals of his own.
Luis Suarez, who had a goal unfairly disallowed for offside, set up Rafinha to make it 3-1, then made it 4-1 himself at the start of the second half, after being set up by Sergio Busquets.
At 4-1 Sevilla seemed finished, but Reyes gave them hope by scoring with a clever volley. Gameiro then converted a penalty after Vitolo had been clearly pulled down by Jeremy Mathieu.
With Barca suddenly against the ropes, Konoplyanka made it 4-4 and took the game into extra-time by turning in a centre from Ciro Immobile.
Barca dominated in extra-time, and Pedro made it 5-4 three minutes from the end by turning in the rebound after Sevilla keeper Beto had failed to hold onto a powerful drive from Messi.
Even then Sevilla refused to lie down and die and went close to making it 5-5 in a frenetic finale. Luckless Sevilla coach Unai Emery has still not managed to beat Barca in 20 clashes and must now be asking himself what he has to do to after coming so close to overcoming them in Tblisi.
Sevilla will now start to prepare for the kick-off of the Spanish league August 22. In contrast, there will be no rest for Barca, who will face Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Super Cup August 14 and 17.