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Friday, August 28, 2009

Barcelona 1-0 Shaktar: Pedro Win

The UEFA Cup winners meet Europe's best side in Monaco. Monaco is a favoured location for UEFA events. They hold their draws there, give out prizes there. And, once a year, the most modest of their club competitions comes here, too: the European Super Cup.

Barcelona already have a cup this season, of course. Adding to their unprecedented treble of 2008-09 is the Spanish Super Cup, hoisted aloft at Camp Nou last week as Athletic Bilbao were brushed aside.

Barca have changed little as a squad since their Champions League win in Rome back in the spring, but what few alterations there have been are considerable. It's a case of quality over quantity: Zlatan Ibrahimovic has come in up front to replace Samuel Eto'o in a move that not all are convinced by - can the Swede turn it on at European level? - while Maxwell arrives at left-back to compete with Eric Abidal.

A few other signings - not least Dmytry Chygrinsky, ex-Shakhtar - and no real departures other than that of Eto'o lend credence to the idea that Pep Guardiola's side are going for all awards yet again.

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