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Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen had a message for supporters after putting in a stunning display to help the Catalan giants secure a spot in the final of the Spanish Super Cup.
The club offered a video message from the Germany international after the game. He said, “Hola culers. I hope you rested well. We definitely did. I’m really happy with the energy and the spirit and now we come back and prepare for the game on Sunday.”
MAtS of the Match
Ter Stegen also took to social media after the match to offer his thoughts on his team’s hard-fought victory over Imanol Alguacil’s side.
A big night, fantastic team spirit and attitude from us. Now we recover and prepare for the final on Sunday. Força Barça!💪🏻🔵🔴 @FCBarcelona
Barcelona will try to win the Spanish Super Cup for the 14th time in their history on Sunday in Seville. Ronald Koeman’s men will take on either Real Madrid or Athletic in the final.
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Ter Stegen Steps Up
There’s no doubt that Ter Stegen played a key role in Barcelona’s win. The goalkeeper made six saves during the match, including a brilliant effort to tip an Adnan Januzaj free-kick onto the post in extra time.
6 – Marc-André ter Stegen 🇩🇪 made six saves against Real Sociedad, equalling their best tally in a single game for @FCBarcelona this season in all competitions (also six vs Dynamo Kiev in #UCL). Besides, he saved two of the five penalties in the penalty shoot-out. Hero.
The goalkeeper followed that up by saving penalties from Jon Bautista and Mikel Oyarzabal in the shootout as Barcelona won 3-2 to progress.
Ter Stegen’s penalty save from Oyarzabal was the first time the Real Sociedad forward had missed from the spot, according to journalist Alexandra Jonson.
The 28-year-old told Movistar after the game that he hadn’t even really studied Real Sociedad penalties before the game, as reported by Marca.
The truth is we hadn’t studied them that much on penalties. In the first 25 minutes they pressed us a lot. Then we found more space and, towards the end, they had trouble pressing. The victory is well deserved. They had a few more chances in extra time but we won, which is what we had to do.
Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong also missed penalties for Barcelona, but Miralem Pjanic, Ousmane Dembele, and Riqui Puig all successfully converted their spot-kicks to seal the win.
Koeman Praises Ter Stegen
Coach Ronald Koeman took time out to praise Ter Stegen for his performance after the match and admitted the Germany international had been crucial to the victory.
Ter Stegen played really fantastic. During the whole game he had some really important saves for the team and that’s really important.
We are really happy and I’m proud of the team. It was an intense game tonight, 120 minutes, it’s not easy at this stage of the season. But we did well, we played well. Maybe, in the beginning, we had some difficulties because they pressed really high. Finally, in penalties you need a bit of luck and you need a good goalkeeper as well. I think we had both.
Barcelona now head into Sunday’s match on a run of nine games unbeaten. The Super Cup is not one of the club’s top priorities this season but does offer Koeman the chance to win his first trophy as Barcelona boss.
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