UEFA Champions League winners, Barcelona will take on Europa League winners Porto today in the Super Cup in Monaco. Barcelona won the Champions League beating Manchester United in the final 3-1 while Porto defeated Braga 1-0. Barcelona is gunning for its fifth Super Cup victory while Barcelona won the Super Cup the last time they appeared in 2009 against Shacktar Donesk. Porto lost their last two Super Cup appearances in 2003 and 2004. Both teams have won their domestic Super Cup trophies with Barcelona getting the better of their rivals Real Madrid 5-4 on aggregates while Porto defeated Vitoria de Guimaraes 2-1.
Barcelona is considered the best team in the world at the moment and has strengthened this summer with the signings of Alexis Sanchez from Udinese and Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal. With the emergence of Thiago Alcantara, the European Champions have depth and quality in their squad which was missing last season. Pep Guradiola will be missing his first choice centre backs Carlos Puyol and Gerad Pique in this game due to injury and it is likely Abidal will partner Mascherano in the defence. Also, the Super Cup victory over Madrid brought Pep Guardiola his 11 trophy as Barca coach surpassing the earlier record set by Johan Cruyff.
FC Porto on the other hand, are known also for attacking football but have been weakened by the departure of their coach Andre Villa-Boas to Chelsea who led them to an unbeaten season last term with 27 wins and three draws. They have also lost their top scorer Radamel Falcao to Athletico Madrid. He scored an incredible 16 goals last season in the Europa League.
Head to head Porto has faced Barcelona seven times in Europe and won three. Barcelona have been the better side four times. The last time these two sides met was in the 2000 Champions League in the group stages where Barca defeated Porto in both games.
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