UEFA Super Cup: Barcelona vs Porto Review

The curtain raiser for the start of Europe’s elite club competition was here the “Super Cup”. It featured the winners of the Champions League Barcelona and Europa League Porto. The match was played in Monaco where yesterday the draw for the group stage was held. This seamed like a pay-per-view event because of all the build up and people were in need of a high profile game like this.

First let’s talk about the teams, Barcelona were favourites heading into this game as they always are played Javier Mascherano and Eric Abidal in the centre of defense with Dani Alves and Adriano as full backs. While Keita got the nod ahead of Busquets and the rest of the squad was the same as in the final of the Champions League in Wembley. On the other hand Porto had brought in a replacement for goal scoring machine Falcao after his transfer to Athletico Madrid and the player was Kleber Laube Pinheiro who had big boots to fill.

The refree blew the whistle and the game started Porto started in the same fashion as Man Utd had done at Wembley pressing Barca like there was no tomorrow and it seemed to work as the Catalan side weren’t able to play their game as they would’ve liked but after 10-15 minutes it was routine business for Barcelona as they passed and pressed which has become like breathing for them but Porto had other ideas who wanted their opponents to work hard for victory and had a very organised back four playing the offside trap occasionaly as Barcelona could not find a way to break past them.

Messi Magic

While on the other side of the pitch Hulk was causing all kinds of problems for Valdes with his new parter Kleber. It was a pretty quite start with the occasional Barca killer pass but the sides were level so everything was working for Porto, defender Rolando should be given credit as he stopped Messi from scoring. Then came a moment which changed the direction of the match Porto player Guarin gave a back pass to his team mates only to find Messi who was clear through on goal and you guessed it right, he scored after beating the keeper with great skill and put the ball into a empty net. This brought an end to the first half.

The second was better then the first one with Porto looking to equalize and certainly playing more attacking football and firing a few long shots that just skipped past the post. Gaurrin who was the villain for gifting Barcelona the first goal tried to redeem himself by firing a screamer that was almost on target . With that the Catalan side tried to score another and Villa got an excellent chance but his shot was saved by Porto keeper Helton and minutes later Pedro was one-on-one with the keeper but lost his footing which Helton then cleared to keep his side in the game. An awkward moment happened between Mascherano and Valdes who got mixed up and Hulk and Adriano were going against each other with the Frenchman coming on top.

Alexis Sanchez and Fabregas came on for Barcelona while Porto defender Rolando was shown red which was a real blow to the team and they paid heavily when Messi crossed the ball to Fabregas who took the ball on his chest and volleyed it home. After that their was no come back for Porto and Barcelona emerged as winners but credit to Porto for giving Barca a tough time.