Pedro’s extra-time goal landed Barcelona the UEFA Super Cup as the Champions League winners beat Sevilla 5-4 in a thriller.
The match-winner in Tbilisi is wanted by Manchester United and reports in Spain before the game suggested that the player, who started on the bench, wants to leave the club.
After going 1-0 down to a third-minute Ever Banega free-kick, Barcelona roared into a 4-1 lead with two free-kicks from Lionel Messi (7, 15) and goals from Rafinha (44) and Luis Suarez (52).
The game looked over but a sensational comeback – courtesy of strikes from Jose Antonio Reyes (57), Kevin Gameiro (72) and Yevhen Konoplyanka (81) – forced extra-time but Pedro came off the bench to dramatically win the cup with five minutes remaining in what could be his last game for the club.
Barca manager Luis Enrique surprisingly left out Pedro from his starting XI for the clash with the Europa League winners, deciding to play Rafinha instead of the injured Neymar, who was missing with mumps.
Sevilla went into the contest with their boss Unai Emery having not beaten Barcelona in 19 matches as a coach – a run it looked might be set to end early on, as Banega bent a free-kick past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
But Messi promptly repeated the trick from a similar range, before curling home another free-kick eight minutes later, this time from further out, to make it 2-1.
Barca dominated the rest of the first half, with Suarez having an effort ruled out for offside and then providing the clever tee-up – after having an initial shot saved – from which Rafinha converted just before the interval.
Suarez duly made it onto the scoresheet shortly after the restart but Emery’s men then mounted an unlikely-looking fightback as Reyes side-footed in, Gameiro converted a penalty won by Vitolo in a tussle with Jeremy Mathieu, and Konoplyanka swept in fellow substitute and summer signing Ciro Immobile’s delivery.
As the contest went into extra-time at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in the Georgian capital, neither side mustered much in their search for another goal until Pedro, introduced for Javier Mascherano in the 93rd minute, slammed the ball home on the follow-up after a Messi shot was spilled by Beto.
Coke and Adil Rami missed great chances to force a penalty shoot-out in the dying stages as Barca held on and registered a fourth trophy in their quest for a 2015 sextet, and equalled AC Milan’s tally of five Super Cup triumphs.
