2014 UEFA Super Cup

The 2014 UEFA Super Cup was the 39th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The match featured two Spanish teams Real Madrid and Sevilla, the winners of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League and the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League respectively. It was played at the Cardiff City Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on 12 August 2014. The date was moved from Friday in late August in previous years, to mid-August starting this year, following the removal of the August international friendly date in the new FIFA International Match Calendar.

Real Madrid won 2–0 to win their second UEFA Super Cup, with both goals by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Venue

The Cardiff City Stadium was announced as the venue of the Super Cup at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 30 June 2012. This was the first UEFA Super Cup hosted in Wales.

The Cardiff City Stadium opened in July 2009 on the site of the Cardiff Athletics Stadium. It is the home stadium of Cardiff City. The stadium had a capacity of 33,000 after expansion work.

UEFA Super Cup

The UEFA Super Cup is an annual football match organized by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the two main European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. It takes place at the start of the domestic season, in mid-August, normally on a Tuesday.

From 1972 to 1999, the UEFA Super Cup was contested between the winners of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League and the winners of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. After the discontinuation of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, it has been contested by the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the winners of the UEFA Cup, which was renamed the UEFA Europa League in 2009.

The current holders are Spanish club Barcelona, who won 5–4 against Sevilla in 2015. The most successful teams in the competition are Barcelona and Italian side Milan, who have each won the trophy five times.

History

The European Super Cup was created in 1971 by Anton Witkamp, a reporter and later sports editor of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The idea came to him in a time when Dutch total football was Europe's finest and Dutch football clubs were living their golden era (especially Ajax). Witkamp was looking for something new to definitely decide which was the best team in Europe and also to further test Ajax's legendary team, led by their star player Johan Cruyff. It was then proposed that the winner of the European Cup would face the winner of the Cup Winners' Cup.