Bilbao, Spain hosted an incredible celebration for their returning Supercopa champions, Athletic Bilbao, who took down La Liga’s toughest opponent. A 31 year drought of trophies is now history for Athletic Bilbao supporters, and they showed exactly how much it meant.
La felicidad es esto #supertxapeldunak pic.twitter.com/DaGAbDUhHE
So Barcelona got beat out by Athletic Bilbao for the rights to the Spanish Super Cup. More accurately, they get embarrassed. The first game was a 4-0 drubbing that absolutely no one saw coming, and the next was embarrassing for what happened, and what didn’t.
The Spanish Super Cup is a competition which has taken place since 1982, pitting the Spanish league champion against the champion of the Copa del Rey.
Until 1995, if a team won both the league and cup titles it won the Super Cup by default. However, since 1996, if a team does the double it must face the runner-up from the Copa del Rey for the right to claim the trophy.
This is the case in 2015. Barcelona, who won both trophies in 2015, will face Athletic Club de Bilbao on August 14 at San Mames and August 17 at Camp Nou.
Barcelona won the UEFA Super Cup Tuesday and Messi was the star with two free kick goals. His immense talent was on display, and one lunatic is claiming Messi's goals were due to luck. That lunatic is Lionel Messi.
"I've just been lucky enough to score those and I'm very happy the team won and very grateful to everyone for their support and such a warm welcome," Messi said after the game.
While the brain trust at The18 has long argued that Manchester United have more pressing personnel matters to deal with at the other end of the pitch, Louis van Gaal has been insistent since United’s pre-season tour of America that what he needs most is “speed and creativity” up front.
The UEFA Super Cup, between the winners of the Champions League and Europa League will take place between Barcelona and Sevilla tomorrow.
If Barcelona win, they would match Milan as the top winners of this competition, each team having won five times.
Boris Paichadze National Stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia, will host the match. In Cardiff last year Sevilla fell 2-0 to Real Madrid.
When I imagine what it must be like to play with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar, images of sandy beaches and brightly colored drinks with their very own umbrellas float into my head, but, you know, in a footballing sense.
I think that their talents would make my job infinitely easier, allowing me to merely spray passes forward, because they are more likely than not to land at the feet of a world-class player, and have success. And, looking at Ivan Rakitic play, it is tempting to believe that this is the case.
We've had a few Messi-free weeks since the end of the Copa America, and it's been awful. He and his Brazilian wing-counterpart Neymar skipped Barcelona's USA tour because of the Copa, so we haven't seen the Argentine wonder in action in more than a month.
Luckily, that's coming to an end. Messi and Neymar, as well as countrymen Javier Mascherano (Argentina) and Dani Alves (Brazil) have come back to Barcelona training, serving as a welcome reminder that the new season is almost upon us.
This lady really likes Pedro.
Don't get us wrong, we're sure he's a nice guy and all, but this lady waited outside Barcelona's training facility for Pedro to come out, held a sign for him, had him sign it, and posed for a picture with him.
And did we mention that in the middle of all that she asked him if he was going to transfer somewhere, he said he didn't know and then she started cryting? Not, like, sniffling either. Weeping. Sobbing. Boo-hooing, if you will. We hope Pedro doesn't actually leave, for this lady's sake. She might never recover.
Luis Suarez knows where his bread is buttered.
He was signing autographs when a young boy came up and said he was the best. Suarez, fully aware that the player who is actually the best wasn't traveling with Barcelona for that particular trip, felt the need to correct the lad.
Suarez is good, for sure, but Messi is the best.