Hundreds of Sevilla supporters danced, sounded car-horns and set off firecrackers into the early hours of Saturday morning to celebrate their team’s European Super Cup victory over the continent’s champion FC Barcelona, news reports said.
Sevilla was regarded as the underdog ahead of Friday’s match-up. Yet the Andalusian side, contesting the Super Cup for the first time, strode to a 3-0 victory at Monaco’s Stade Louis II thanks to first-half goals by Renato and Frederic Kanoute, and substitute Enzo Maresca’s late penalty.
”The triumph of David over Goliath will travel around the world. Sevilla is now competitively the best team in Europa,” Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido was quoted as saying by news agency Europa Press.
”We had to win like this to avoid all doubt that we are the best team in Europe. With the chances we had the margin of victory could have been bigger,” he added.
Sevilla coach Juande Ramos said his team ”played a marvelous match”.
”One of the keys to beating Barcelona was the fact we didn’t make mistakes,” Ramos said. ”The result was down to Sevilla’s merit rather than Barcelona’s mistakes. We prepared for the game very well and we were really up for it.”
Barcelona, which now lost four of six European Super Cup finals, was downcast after the defeat. On Monday, it begins its campaign for a third straight Spanish league title against Celta Vigo.
Sevilla opens its Spanish league campaign on Tuesday against newly-promoted Levante.
”Sevilla’s win was deserved. We knew we could lose, that we’re not invincible and that we have to suffer if we want to win,” Barcelona midfielder Deco said.
Coach Frank Rijkaard’s team hadn’t suffered a three-goal defeat for 19 months. It was also the first time Barcelona had ended a game goalless after fielding star forwards Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi in its starting lineup.
Captain Carles Puyol added that the heavy loss will help his team approach the season in a more humble manner.
”There was talk of winning a lot of cups [this season], but we have to win them on the field and today Sevilla was the better team,” Puyol said. – Sapa-AP