Bittersweet draw at the Camp Nou
Atletico Madrid put in an excellent performance and pushed Barcelona all the way. Filipe Luis was sent off and Messi smashed a penalty off the crossbar. Arda was also dismissed from the bench. Barcelona crowned Spanish Super Cup winners without winning a match.
Barcelona 0-0 Atletico Madrid
Barcelona : Valdes , Dani Alves , Pique , Mascherano , Jordi Alba , Xavi , Busquets , Cesc (Iniesta , 73) , Alexis ( Pedro , 64 ') , Messi and Neymar .
Atletico Madrid : Courtois , Juanfran , Miranda , Godin , Filipe Luis , Koke (Leo Baptistão , 88 ' ) , Gabi , Mario Suarez, Arda Turan ( Adrian, 72' ), Diego Costa and Villa ( Cristian Rodriguez, 83 ' ) .
Referee : Fernández Borbalán . Sent off Filipe Luis (80') and Arda Turan ( 90') from the bench. He showed yellow card to Cesc (28') , Busquets (30') , Piqué (53'), Koke (26') , Gabi (80') , Diego Costa ( 85').
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid took the pitch with everything to play for . Gerardo Martino 's side looked to dominate possession and have more chances to score , but they were met with a strong Atletico Madrid who were quick on thebreak and linked up well.
Messi , who returned to Barca team after not playing in La Rosaleda, was found always covered by one or more players not allowing him to create danger. The Atleti defense was spectacular in the first half, Neymar and Alexis were denied every possible space.
The first chance of the match fell to Messi who received the ball from Busquets but as the argentine was about t pull the trigger, Filipe made a last ditch tackle to deny the goal. The minutes passed and Barca were struggling to creat the chances to hurt their opponent. Atletico’s best chance came when an Arda Turan pass set Diego Costa free but the Brazilian was just offside.
Another good chance came for the visitors in the 34th minute through a quick counterattack attack with Diego Costa who played it in to Gabi who laid it back to Koke but his shot was easily saved by Valdes . Atleti continued to look dangerous and in the 41st minutes we saw the most dangerous move of the entire first half with a combination between Koke and Arda Turan whose shot was palmed wide for a corner by Valdes . The half ended goalless, but encouraging signs from the rojiblancos.
The second half saw a very ambitious Atletico Madrid who went out to win the game early, who stepped forward in search of the goal that the final desnivelara their favor. Villa came close to breaking the deadlock in the 55th minute but another great save from Valdes denied the visitors from scoring what would have been the decisive goal.
The game began to open up in the final stages with Barca having more possession but Atletico looking more dangerous on the break but everything changed with the dismissal of Filipe Luis after 80 minutes. Simeone brought on Cristian Rodriguez for Villa as Atleti continued to look for the win.
In the final stretch of the game a penalty was awarded to the home side but Messi smashed it against the bar. A heroic Atletico continued to fight until the end but the Spanish Super Cup stayed in Barcelona thanks to the away goal in the Calderon. Atletico Madrid showed what they are capable of in these two games.
