Barcelona 1-1 Athletic Bilbao (1-5 agg): Bilbao claim Super Cup

Barcelona failed to stage a famous comeback in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Athletic Bilbao at the Nou Camp on Monday evening.

Luis Enrique’s side were bidding to overturn a 4-0 first leg deficit, but failed to reduce Bilbao’s commanding lead until a minute before half-time.

Lionel Messi gave the home side hope of staging a stunning comeback when he netted prior to the interval. But the dismissal of defender Gerard Pique early in the second half all but ended their hopes of completing a turnaround.

Bilbao made their numerical advantage count and drew level 15 minutes from time through forward Aritz Aduriz.

The late dismissal of substitute Kike Sola did nothing to stop Bilbao claiming their first Super Cup since 1984.

Bilbao came into the match on the back of Friday’s stunning 4-0 first leg victory. A brilliant strike from midfielder Mikel San Jose and a second half hat-trick from Aduriz put Bilbao in a commanding position ahead of the second leg.

Despite their strong lead, manager Ernesto Valverde was taking nothing for granted and named an almost unchanged side. San Jose and Sabin Merino were the only absentees from the side that won so comfortably at the San Mames Stadium.

It was the hosts, however, who settled quickest and were unfortunate not to be in front inside the opening six minutes, when Pique saw his volley cannon back off the crossbar.

Barca continued to press, but poor finishing from Andres Iniesta, Luis Suarez and Pedro prevented them breaking the deadlock within the opening half an hour of the match.

And it would take until a minute before half-time for Barca to finally break down Bilbao’s resistance, with Messi the beneficiary of great work between Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez.

But their hopes of mounting a serious challenge to the three-goal deficit were hit 10 minutes into the second half when Pique was shown a straight red card for remonstrating with the assistant referee.

Barca continued to push forward in the hope of building on their one goal lead, but were caught out 15 minutes from time as Aduriz followed up to score after his initial effort was saved by Bravo.

Bilbao were unaffected by the late red card shown to Sola, following a late challenge on Javier Mascherano, and ended their 31-year wait for silverware in comfortable fashion.

The two teams meet again at San Mames on Sunday evening in their opening fixture of the new La Liga season.