Tata Martino has reflected on Barcelona’s intention to improve and dedicated their Supercopa de Espana win to former Coach Tito Vilanova.
La Blaugrana played out a 0-0 draw at home to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday evening to secure the first title of the season on the away goal rule.
For the team’s Coach, it was an opportunity to pay tribute to his predecessor Vilanova, who stepped down in the summer due to ill health.
“The fact Barcelona won the trophy does not change anything, this triumph came about because of what happened last year,” qualified Martino.
“In the end I ended up winning it because of an unfortunate turn of events and therefore we’re champions because of the players, Tito and the coaching staff.
“When you are playing for a trophy, winning is all that counts," he said.
“You are known as the champions no matter how you won it, even though there is less splendour to the victory.
“It’s a weight off my back to win this Super Cup. For me, being a new manager, winning wasn’t the same as losing.
“I experienced this competition with a lot of intensity…everything in football that is good or bad is because of the players and I don’t like to be in the limelight, especially in this Super Cup.
“We intend to do much more and we want to insist on working for these types of games.”
Barca dominated possession but still relied on Victor Valdes to make some important saves, whilst Lionel Messi missed a last minute penalty.
“We created few chances? I think not. We had the penalty, the chance for Neymar, Messi had the clearest early in the game, if it is just based on how much we had the ball then no. But the clearest chances were ours.
“Atletico had three shots. Two that Victor saved. That is the thing that has always characterised Victor, he is a great goalkeeper.
“We’re not doing too badly considering that the season just started. We do need to fix things, we have to have more pace, more precision and attack into space.
“The goal is to play more like we did in the first 20 minutes, when we were at our quickest.
“One of my intentions is regain our pressure but perhaps we can’t do that against teams that close themselves off at the back.
“We’re looking for the Barca that can regain its ability to play differently depending on what our rivals throw at us.
“Just like in the first leg we were playing long balls. At times it is necessary to extend the lines. This will also extend their five midfielders to try and see if we could move the ball through.”
The game was a first instance of Messi starting alongside summer signing Neymar.
“They played a good game, even though it’s true that they didn’t link-up much.
“I’m certain, however, that they will find each other on the pitch.”
