Barcelona and Atletico Madrid settle for draw in first leg of Spanish Supercopa final

Neymar of Barcelona celebrates after scoring his team’s opening goal

In a rather dramatic first leg of the Spanish Supercopa final – headlined by Tata Martino’s mysterious substitution of Leo Messi for Cesc Fabregas at half time – Copa del Rey winners Atletico and La Liga holders Barcelona played out an exciting 1-1 draw.

The match began with all eyes on David Villa, who was up against his former team, and it didn’t take Villa too long to rise to the occasion. In the 11^th minute of the match, he whacked a half-volley from Turan into the right bottom corner of the Barcelona net for a sublime goal. A few half chances for both sides, yellow cards for Busquets, Filipe Luis and Juanfran, and a vociferous Vicente Calderon crowd ensured that proceeding were high octane throughout.

The second half began with the bizarre substitution of Messi for Fabregas. Barcelona, aided by the arrival of Neymar, who came in for Pedro in the 59^th minute, however, attacked with more intent and finally equalised in the 65^th minute through their newest superstar who headed Danny Alves’ cross in at the back post for his first competitive goal in Barca colours.

Barcelona tried desperately hard to look for a winner, but Atletico Madrid were equally resilient, and none of the teams could make any further inroads. The next leg, which will decide the winner, will see the two teams battle it out at the Bernabeu on the 28^th of this month.