Barcelona give Guardiola perfect farewell

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

MADRID: Barcelona gave coach Pep Guardiola the perfect send off Friday, beating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in Madrid to win the Spanish Cup in the coach’s last match in charge after a memorable four seasons in the Catalan hot seat.

Lionel Messi, with his 73rd goal of the season, and a Pedro Rodriguez double finished off the Basque side inside the first half an hour and delivered Guardiola his 14th and final trophy.

Guardiola leaves the side he once played for with three Spanish leagues, two Champions Leagues, two FIFA World Club Cups, two UEFA Supercups, three Spanish Supercups and two Spanish Cup victories as coach. The win was a repeat of Guardiola’s first title in the 2008-09 final when the Catalans ran out 4-1 victors over Bilbao.

With Dani Alves and Carles Puyol injured, Guardiola had decided to start with a four-man defence including the youngster Martin Montoya at right-back. He also made the decision to give Pedro a final chance to play himself into the Spanish squad for Euro 2012 and the forward grabbed it with both feet.

Bilbao got an early warning of what to expect when Messi went straight into a mazy run from kick-off before shooting wide. Within three minutes of the start Barca were ahead when Amorebieta diverted a goal-bound Pedro shot wide, the striker latched on to a loose ball to fire home from the resulting corner.

On 15 minutes Messi had a left-footed curling shot tipped over the bar by Bilbao stopper Gorka Iraizoz and three minutes later Xavi Hernandez shot just over the bar. It was therefore no surprise when Messi doubled the lead on 21 minutes, the little Argentinian taking one touch to control a slide-rule pass from Andres Iniesta before slamming home from close range.

Four minutes later and Pedro made it three to end all doubts of where the cup would be heading. Gerard Pique played a long searching pass to Xavi on the edge of the area who cleverly laid it back for the Tenerife-born player to side foot home his second.

Bilbao continued to battle and within a minute going three down Markel Susaeta brought the first save at the other end from Jose Pinto, who has replaced Victor Valdes all season in goal for Barca in domestic cup games. The Basques had further chances to reduce the margin.

On 28 minutes referee David Fernandez waved away what appeared to be a clear penalty after Pique had pulled down Fernando Llorente and Iker Muniain had an angled shot blocked at the near-post on the stroke of half-time.