Barcelona 1-1 Athletic Club: Basques win Super Cup as Gerard Pique sent off

Barcelona's bid for the sextuple came undone as they couldn't beat Athletic Club at Camp Nou, let alone by the four goals they needed to.

Gerard Pique was bizarrely sent off for remonstrating with the linesman as the Basque visitors earned their first piece of silverware for over three decades.

They did a brilliant job of drowning out Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, though the latter eventually opened the scoring as half-time approached. 

Unsurprisingly Barcelona went with their strongest available team, after their humiliation at the San Mames. That meant Claudio Bravo was back in goal, with Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets in midfield. 

The first clear cut chance came in the sixth minute, with Pedro's strike deflected fractionally over. From the resulting corner Gerard Pique struck the crossbar from close range.

It was as close as Barcelona came for some time, despite dominating possession. By the midway mark of the first half they were above eight per cent. 

The next best chance fell to Athletic when Pedro gave the ball away to Javier Eraso. He beat Mascherano but pummelled his strike into the side netting when in on Claudio Bravo's goal.

Pedro had air-kicked from the edge of the box after a clear corner as the Canary Islander struggled to have a positive impact on the game. Iniesta spewed one over the top from similar range soon after. 

Eventually Barcelona broke the deadlock, as half-time approached. Mascherano darted forward from the back, in a fashion his Argentine compatriot wearing the No 10 would have been proud of, feeding Rakitic. 

The Croatian fired the ball across for Luis Suarez, who had thus far been quiet. He teed up Messi beautifully with his chest and the Argentine controlled before firing beyond Gorka Iraizoz. 

One down, three to go, but first Pedro was booked for fighting with the goalkeeper, who tried to hold the ball in his net to whittle away precious seconds. 

Barcelona started the secnd half with plenty of the ball but denied by the linesman's offside flag a few times. It began to get under their skin. 

When Aritz Aduriz was denied by Bravo, Pique charged towards the linesman to remonstrate, arguing that the forward should have been flagged too. 

It was too aggressive for referee Carlos Velasco Carballo, who gave him a straight red card.

That seemed like it was it for Barcelona, with Luis Enrique throwing Sandro and Munir El Haddadi on for Rakitic and Pedro.

Aritz Aduriz, who bagged a hat-trick in the first leg, made sure of it. He capitalised after some terrible defending by Jeremy Mathieu, who lost a header which left the striker in the clear.

Bravo was down well to save his first effort but it rebounded to the forward who rolled the ball home and effectively ended Athletic's 31 year wait for a trophy.

Aduriz was one of the few players who was alive the last time the Basque side touched silverware, in 1984, and this was a deserved moment for him.

There will be no sextuple for Barcelona and now they have to get their ship in order for the season ahead. First up? Another trip to the San Mames.