MADRID, May 26: Barcelona gave Pep Guardiola a fitting end to his glittering four-year reign as coach winning the King’s Cup final against Athletic Bilbao 3-0 on Friday to send him off with a 14th trophy under his arm.
Pedro scored a brace and the outstanding player of the Guardiola era, World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, added the other to finish with an unprecedented 73 goals in all competitions this season.
Guardiola hands over to his assistant Tito Vilanova for next season, as he goes off to recharge his batteries, after winning three consecutive La Liga titles, two Champions League crowns in 2009 and 2011, and two King’s Cups.
“Winning 14 titles in four years is very difficult and we are very satisfied,” a beaming Guardiola told a news conference.”
“This has been the best year, in which we have made the most progress tactically. During the first few years it was all energy and fireworks. I watch matches from our first season and we made more mistakes.”
For Bilbao, it completed a miserable end to a season in which they had thrilled with their dynamic brand of attacking football.
They reached the Europa League final, seeing off Manchester United and Schalke 04 along the way, to be crushed 3-0 by Atletico Madrid two weeks ago, before the heartache of a second final defeat, by the same score.
They take away the consolation of a place in the Europa League next season as the losing finalists, with Barca already qualified for the Champions League again.
As expected, a shortened version of the Spanish national anthem before kickoff was met with a cacophony of whistles from the Basque and Catalan nationalists among the fans.
With Dani Alves and Carles Puyol injured, Guardiola had decided to start with a four-man defence including the youngster Martin Montoya at right-back.
He also made the decision to give Pedro a final chance to play himself into the Spanish squad for Euro 2012 and the forward grabbed it with both feet.
Barcelona opened on three minutes when Ibai Gomez failed to clear Gerard Pique’s flick-on from a corner, with Pedro well-positioned inside the area to slot home.
Messi, who curled just wide in the opening stages, received an exquisite cross pass from Andres Iniesta and the Argentina forward fired with his weaker right foot over goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz into the roof of goal in the 20th minute.
Four minutes later , Barcelona’s high pressure and up-tempo play were rewarded with a third goal as Xavi Hernandez laid off for Pedro to scream a low roller beyond the fingertips of the diving Iraizoz.
“I’m very happy because it’s been a tough and difficult year for me,” said Pedro, who found himself on the substitute’s bench for much of the season.
Guardiola has said he will now take a season break from the game before deciding where his future lies.
Here he continued to wring every ounce of effort out of his side from the sidelines in the final moments of a glittering reign to assure another title for his Barcelona side.—Agencies