FC Barcelona are champions of the 2015 UEFA Super Cup after a thrilling 5-4 victory over Sevilla on Tuesday evening at the Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Pedro was the hero for the 2014-15 Champions League title holders, as he came on as a substitute to score the winner with just five minutes left in extra time. The goal is likely the Canarian's last for the club, with him rumored to be joining Manchester United this week.
With Neymar sidelined with the mumps, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique opted to insert Rafinha into the attacking trident along with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez. The trusted trio of Andrés Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets formed the middle, while in the back goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was protected by a back four of Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué, Javier Mascherano and Jeremy Mathieu.
Sevilla boss Unai Emery countered with Beto in goal and a back four of Coke, Adil Ramí, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Benoit Tremoulinas. Ever Banega and Michael Krohn-Dehli anchored in as holding midfielders, while Vicente Iborra, José Antonio Reyes and Vitolo composed the attack in support of lone striker Kevin Gamiero.
Sevilla were quick out of the gates, and were up 1-0 inside the first five minutes as a Banega free kick gave the Andalusians the lead. It came as a result of a Mascherano foul on Reyes and Sevilla's Argentine midfielder stepped forward and delivered a curling right-footer that stunned Ter Stegen.
That was all Barcelona needed to get kick-started, and just three minutes later the Catalonians were celebrating thanks to a Messi free kick. From an almost similar distance as Banega's effort, La Pulga looped in a left-footer that spun right past Beto and into the net to make it 1-1.
On 15 minutes Messi mustered up more magic and again fired in a left-footed free kick, this time from slightly deeper, to hand Barcelona a 2-1 lead. Thirteen minutes later Barcelona thought that they had increased their lead to two goals through Suárez, but the Uruguayan was whistled for offside. Replays showed that the forward was in fact onside.
Sevilla then nearly equalized thanks to some fancy footwork from Vitolo on the right side, but his ball across was cleared by Alves before it could trickle over the line. The back and forth would continue and two minutes before the break Barcelona would get their third goal courtesy of Rafinha. It all started with a Suárez break, but the former Liverpool was unable to finish past Beto. However, Suárez was able to collect the rebound and found an onrushing Rafinha who poked it home to give Barcelona the 3-1 lead.
Barcelona kept the scoring exploits going into the second half, and a defensive error from Sevilla allowed an ocean of space for Busquets to find Suárez and the Uruguayan had an easy sweep into net to make it 4-1 in the 52nd minute.
Sevilla started to make inroads and halved the margin in the 57th minute when Reyes fired in at the far post a superb Vitolo cross from the left after Mathieu had drifted in too far inside, giving the veteran winger all the time and space to slot past Ter Stegen.
Things became even more interesting in the 71st minute when Mathieu was whistled for a penalty for a takedown of Vitolo in the area right as the former Las Palmas man looked to be heading in a Tremoulinas cross from the left. Gameiro stepped up to take the spot kick and slammed his effort past Ter Stegen to make it a 4-3 game.
The improbable then happened in the 81st minute when two Sevilla substitutes, both new players who arrived over the summer, teamed up to draw Emery's men level 4-4. Ciro Immobile found room on the right and his cross was met by Yevhen Konoplynka at the far post for Sevilla's third straight goal.
A winner was not to be had in the match's final moments, so it was off to extra time to try to settle matters. The pace of the affair slowed during the additional 30 minutes, with both teams still fighting the effects of a first official match following preseason, combined with the humidity in the Georgian capital.
Yet a dramatic finale was in store as Pedro, who is strongly rumored to be headed to Manchester United this week, scored the winner in the 115th minute. A Messi free kick was blocked by the Sevilla wall, seemingly by the hand of Vitolo, and the follow up shot from the Argentine required a diving save from Beto. However, the Sevilla goalkeeper was only able to deflect it to his right and Pedro was there to pounce and thunder the ball into the net to give Barcelona the 5-4 lead.
Amazingly, Sevilla had one last shout when Immobile crossed for Rami, but the former Milan defender had the ball strike his knee and carom wide, much to the disbelief of Emery. Barcelona would then avoid any further late scares to clinch their fourth title of 2015.
