Barcelona were on the right end of a nine goal thriller in the UEFA Super Cup final on Tuesday night in Tbilisi, as the Catalan giants defeated Sevilla 5-4 in extra time. It was record equalling night for Barca too, who have now matched AC Milan’s total of five wins in the competition.
In what was one of the most entertaining games of football in Super Cup history, Sevilla put in a heroic effort to fight back from 4-1 down to take the tie into extra time, before Pedro fired in Barcelona’s winner.
The odds were stacked heavily in Barcelona’s favour in the pre-match betting previews. Bookies.com had predicted that Ivan Rakitic would find the net, having scored for and against Barcelona and Sevilla in the past two years – however, the Croatian failed to find the net.
Anyone who had taken the bookies tips of backing Barcelona to lift the cup at any time will have been rubbing their hands with glee after Pedro’s winner, as predicted by bookies.com.
Bookies offer football fans the latest betting odds, news and offers. It’s easy to navigate around the site and find high quality written betting previews from all of the biggest matches taking place in Europe, and around the world. Had you of taken advantage of their Barca vs Sevilla betting preview, you could have made some serious money.
Sevilla had taken a very early lead, as Ever Banega fired in a free-kick with only three minutes on the clock. Barca then turned the heat up, as Lionel Messi scored twice before the 15-minute mark – with Rafinha adding a third just before half time. Luis Suarez then scored a fourth all but ending Sevilla’s hopes of a triumph in the final. Or had it?
The comeback was started by Jose Antonio Reyes 12 minutes after the half time break, before Kevin Gameiro made it 4-3 15 minutes later. And what looked impossible 25 minutes earlier, Sevilla levelled the scores on 81 minutes through Yevhen Konoplyanka – and extra time beckoned.
Pedro came off the bench to win it for Barcelona with just five minutes of extra-time remaining, in what some are predicting could be his last ever match for the club.
The club’s technical secretary spoke out in recent days stating that the player wanted to push through a move away from the club – with Manchester United one of the clubs rumoured to be very interested in the Spaniard:
“Manchester? Yes, there are nice challenges on all sides,” he said.
“Today I’m here, and I’m happy. And if I go, I will go with my head held high having always given everything.”
Sevilla may have had their hearts broken on the night, but will almost certainly take plenty of positives from the fact they managed to score four past one of the greatest Barcelona teams ever, and on another Coke and Adil Rami’s late chances would have found the net – and then who knows?
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