Luis Enrique pays tribute to Barcelona players after Super Cup win
Thursday 18 August 2016 09:13, UK
Luis Enrique wanted his players to take the plaudits as Barcelona beat Sevilla 3-0 to win their 12th Spanish Super Cup on Wednesday, 5-0 on aggregate.
Arda Turan and Lionel Messi blew away the Andalusians at the Nou Camp, with victory meaning the coach has won eight of the 10 competitions he has contested while in charge of Barcelona.
With the hosts already leading by two goals from the first leg, Sevilla were on the receiving end of a Barcelona football master class.
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Turan put in his best display yet for the Catalans after a disappointing debut season, scoring once in each half, but it was Messi who masterminded a relentless slew of assaults on Sevilla's goal.
"I am very fortunate to have a group of unique players, who don't stop surprising me," Enrique said in his post-match press conference.
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"They are different and the good thing is that the new players have a lot of enthusiasm and will try and copy what those who have been here for years have been doing. It's a true honour and a pleasure."
Sevilla started brightly with Ben Yedder forcing a smart save from Claudio Bravo, but Barcelona withstood their early pressure and took just 10 minutes to score the opening goal of the game.
A good move between Andre Gomes and Messi led to the latter putting Turan through and he fired home to break the deadlock.
Gomes was one of Barcelona's four summer signings and the other three, Samuel Umtiti, Denis Suarez and Lucas Digne, all also started the match.
French centre-back Umtiti was having a good game until shortly after the half-hour mark, when he blocked Mariano Ferreira's shot with his arm and the referee pointed to the penalty spot.
However, Bravo dived low to his right to deny Sevilla captain Vicente Iborra.
Reports in Spanish media suggest Bravo could be moving to Manchester City and he put in a flawless display.
"I'm very happy and satisfied with what I saw on the pitch," added Enrique. "Apart from [Javier] Mascherano's injury."
The Argentine defender went off late in the second half and it has been revealed that he has a minor hamstring strain which will keeps him out for a week.
The victory was achieved with regular starters Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic who were left on the bench, while Neymar is on Olympic duty in Rio.
"We could have scored in the first half," Sevilla coach Jorge Sampaoli reflected. "And in the second half we made two errors that put them in front definitively. The differences was in the areas."
