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Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde wants Ousmane Dembele to stay after 'magic goal'

Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde repeated his desire for Ousmane Dembele to remain at the club after the "magic goal" of the France forward won the Spanish Super Cup on Sunday.

Dembele scored the winner in the 78th minute after Gerard Pique canceled out Pablo Sarabia's opener when Barca beat Sevilla 2-1 in Tangier, Morocco.

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"He has a lot of quality and he is a Barcelona player," Valverde told a post-match press conference. "I know there are a lot of things going on [...] But he started the game, he scored an amazing goal and he was well connected with the team.

"In fact, he got better during the match. He was able to create space where there wasn't much against a team that sat more than we expected. And in the second half, he was really good."

Valverde said before the match that he "did not know" if Dembele would leave the club before the end of the transfer window amid reports of interest from Paris Saint-Germain.

However, he stressed that he wanted a € 105 million signing from Borussia Dortmund to stay at Camp Nou, suggesting that the decision was not necessarily made.

He started against Sevilla, with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, just one week after he returned to pre-season training is probably the way to show the player he relied on him after the first season in Spain was plagued by injury.

"Dembele with us and we have high hopes in him," added Valverde when pressed for the future of 21 years.

Midfielder Sergio Busquets also joined the plea for Dembele to remain: "I hope he continues here, of course - that he continues and that this season is better for him than the last, when he has the bad luck with injury. I hope he can become a player important to us. "

The Dembele winner gave Barca the perfect start to a new campaign, unlike last year when they lost to Real Madrid in the Super Cup. And Valverde likes to have a trophy on the board.

"We are happy because we have won the competition, beating tough opponents," said the coach. "It's a difficult match because Sevilla scored early and we have to go back.

"You can say that some players have not played for a while but they are growing when the game is running. This is a good match. Sevilla are defending well and maintaining their performance but they also have opportunities. It's good to win because it strengthens what we do and lets us start the season with a good record. "

Lionel Messi, whose free-kick fired towards the equalizer Pique, won the 33rd trophy for Barca, took him beyond Andres Iniesta as the most decorated player at the club - it was also his first appointment since becoming the new captain of the Catalan team.

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