MADRID, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona fought back from a goal down to take a 2-1 win in the first leg of the Spanish Supercup against Athletic Club Bilbao on Sunday night.
The first leg was played in Athletic's San Mames Stadium and with the return fixture to be held in Barcelona's Camp Nou next weekend, the Primera Liga Champions are now big favorites to lift the first trophy of the season.
Barcelona was without key players Leo Messi and Andres Iniesta, but still started brightly against the side that they had beaten 4-1 in last season's King's Cup final.
Bojan Krkic hit the Athletic crossbar with a shot from outside the area and Dani Alves forced a magnificent save from Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz early in the match.
However, as the game continued, a hard working and committed Athletic side got more into things and began to break up Barcelona's fluid attacking football.
Indeed the Basques opened the scoring when the impressive Oscarde Marcos' shot took a deflection past in the last minute of the first half.
The home side also kicked the second half off brightly and was looking comfortable, before Xavi Hernandez finished off a neat move to level the score after 58 minutes.
The Spain international curled the ball into the net on the near post after taking a short pass from Pedro.
Nine minutes later Pedro won the match with a magnificent shot from outside of the area which curled away from Gorka's despairing dive.
That goal knocked the wind out of Athletic and Gorka needed another fine save to again frustrate Alves as the game drew to a close.
Barcelona showed that even without key players, it is still a magnificent side, while Athletic demonstrated that even in defeat its players will give everything for 90 minutes of every game.
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