Barcelona striker Luis Suárez. (Photo : Getty Images)
La Liga and Copa del Rey champions FC Barcelona will host Copa del Rey runners-up Sevilla FC in the second leg of their 2016 Supercopa de España meeting this Wednesday at the Camp Nou.
Barça blanked the reigning UEFA Europa League winners in the first leg, 2-0, at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville on Sunday to take a comfortable lead in the said Super Cup series.
After a goalless first half of play, Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez and Spanish forward Munir El Haddadi scored the two goals at the 54th and 81st minutes for head coach Luis Enrique's side during the match, as per SkySports.
Munir is currently filling-in for Brazilian skipper Neymar, who is still with his national team competing in the ongoing Rio Summer Olympics.
Neymar is expected to miss this second leg matchup with Sevilla as well as the team's La Liga season-opening match against Real Betis on Saturday as the Seleção is still in the thick of the fight for the gold medal in Rio after advancing to the Games' semifinals versus Honduras also on Wednesday.
Lionel Messi almost doubled the lead after Suárez's opening salvo, but his shot was blocked by Los Rojiblancos keeper Sergio Rico. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner then assisted to Munir's goal and again almost scored in injury time, but Rico was there again to tip away his shot.
Coach Enrique was reportedly pleased by his men's performance even as the team lost team captain Andres Iniesta and defender Jeremy Mathieu to injuries during the match.
"We continue with the same ambition as always. This team knows sacrifice and we are competing for all the titles and we got a great result," said Enrique, via Goal. "We played a good game both defensively and offensively especially in the second half. I'm very pleased with everything."
Barça is expected to close out the series with another comfortable win.
The predicted result is a 2-1 win for Barcelona.
Barcelona starting lineup (3-4-3 formation): Bravo; Roberto, Pique, Mascherano, Digne; Rakitic, Busquets, D. Suárez; Messi, L. Suárez, Turan
Sevilla starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Rico; Pareja, Carrico, Escudero; Mariano, N'Zonzi, Iborra, Vazquez; Kiyotake, Konoplyanka, Kiyotake, Vitolo
