Barca win Spanish Super Cup

Barcelona have claimed the Spanish Super Cup for a 12th time after recording a 3-0 victory over Sevilla in the second leg of the competition at Camp Nou on Wednesday night.

The Spanish champions entered the match holding a two-goal advantage from the first leg in Seville and it proved to be a comfortable success for Luis Enrique’s side, who have claimed their first trophy of the 2016-17 campaign.

Sevilla twice came close to making the breakthrough on the night inside five minutes, but Claudio Bravo pushed a Wissam Ben Yedder effort wide of the post, before the reported Manchester City target tipped a Joaquin Correa header onto the crossbar during what was a bright start from the visitors.

A bizarre moment then saw Javier Mascherano overcook a back-pass to Bravo and actually fire over his own crossbar as an inexperienced Barcelona defence struggled to settle inside the opening eight minutes.

The home side took the lead in the 10th minute of action, however, as Andre Gomes, one of four summer signings on display for the Catalan outfit, found Lionel Messi and the Argentine slid a pass into Arda Turan, who finished in the opposite corner to make it 3-0 on aggregate.

Barcelona had their second of the night less than one minute into the second period when Turan, albeit with the help of a deflection, found a route past Rico from distance after the Spaniard had been forced off his line to clear a back-pass.

Barcelona had their fifth of the tie in the 55th minute, however, as Messi headed a Denis Suarez cross into the far corner after evading the capture of the away side’s two central defenders.

Both managers made changes in the final 30 minutes as the pace of the match dropped, although Barcelona were still searching for more goals and came close through Messi on a couple of occasions.

Sevilla enjoyed more of the possession in the latter stages as an injury to Mascherano forced the home side to finish with 10 men, but it ended 3-0 on the night and 5-0 on aggregate as the Catalan giants claimed the trophy in comfortable fashion.

Barcelona will open their La Liga title defence at home to Real Betis on Saturday, while Sevilla face more Catalan opposition in the shape of Espanyol at the Estadio Ramon on the same night.