In the end, even Real Madrid had too much to topple him. Barcelona won the Spanish Super Cup final with a 5-2 victory over their formidable opponents in a wild contest on Sunday night.
Just like in the last Clasico in October, Barcelona scored four goals in one half. Hansi Flick’s Catalans piled up this quartet before the half-time whistle in the Saudi-based showpiece, but Real Madrid did not go down without a fight.
Kylian Mbappe had opened the scoring before the Barcelona blitz and forced the sending off of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny on the hour mark. Rodrygo reduced the gap to three goals, but Barcelona held on to win a trophy that will divert, however briefly , the controversy that has surrounded the club in recent times.
How the game played out
Barcelona had been warned. “Madrid are one of the best teams in the world in transition,” Flick stressed before kick-off.
Kylian Mbappe needed less than five minutes to justify the Barcelona coach’s fears, leading a lengthy counterattack that started from a corner that Real Madrid were originally defending. Vinicius Junior robbed Marc Casado on the edge of his own team’s box and pushed Mbappe away. The Frenchman did everything but left burn marks on the turf as he rushed forward, twisting Alejandro Balde inside out before stabbing past Szczesny.
Despite the early concession, Barcelona were undeterred, taking control of possession and chasing the ball after every turnover. Lamine Yamal, so often the Catalans’ source of attacking inspiration, teased Flick’s side with an incredibly delicate finish. Tiptoeing from the right wing, the teenage Barcelona sensation bamboozled Thibaut Courtois with a tricky backhand that spilled into the bottom corner.
Against a backdrop of constant buzz from a predominantly Madrid crowd in Saudi Arabia, there was a roar of disapproval when the referee pointed to the penalty spot in the 36th minute. After an on-field review, Jesus Gil Manzano agreed that Eduardo Camavinga’s dangling leg was enough to bring Gavi down. Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 yards.
Raphinha doubled Barcelona’s advantage three minutes after the penalty. The Brazilian lost his way into the gaping chasm that existed within Madrid’s makeshift defense, hitting a powerful header beyond Courtois to make it 3-1.
The epic first half stretched over almost an hour as nine minutes of injury time were added. On the last kick of the interminable half, Madrid had a short corner intercepted by Yamal. The winger deflected fellow goalscorer Raphinha on a dizzying counter-attack which Alejandro Balde, coming out from left-back, finished off with a drilled finish into the bottom corner.
Carlo Ancelotti tried to stem the bleeding with the half-time introduction of Dani Ceballos, but the controlling Spaniard was helpless as Raphinha added a fifth for Barcelona within three minutes of the restart.
As Flick’s side appeared headed for another Clasico mauling, their own flaws were exposed. Mbappe burst behind that infamously high backline and knocked the ball away from Szczesny. Barcelona’s backup goalkeeper punched the Frenchman and was dismissed after a VAR review. Rodrygo picked the top corner from the resulting free kick, ensuring that Inaki Pena’s first task as substitute goalkeeper was to collect the ball into his net.
The pace of a game that wasn’t so much an ebb and flow as a violent crash from one end of the field to the other belatedly began to slow in the final 20 minutes. Barcelona’s ten men reluctantly dove deeper, frustrating an exhausted Madrid side with a five-goal blitz either side of halftime.
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The Line – the grand Saudi conception of a single city stretching 170km – could have been built in its entirety between Aurélien Tchouameni and Lucas Vazquez when Barcelona scored their third goal of the evening.
For all the glitz and glamor of Real Madrid’s attack, Raphinha’s free header is a powerful reminder that half of the team’s rearguard on Sunday night consisted of a defensive midfielder on the side of an aging winger.
Tchouameni appeared to be pulling an invisible caravan when he tried to pursue Raphinha early in the second half, but got nowhere for the Barcelona vice-captain who quickly made it 5-1. During the ensuing break, Ancelotti replaced Vazquez with Raul Asencio – a youngster making his first Clasico appearance, but at least he was familiar with the demands of playing in a back four.
Ancelotti was the driving force behind Madrid’s defensive signing drive in January, while the club intend to save up for a summer spree. The Italian’s urgency was not suppressed by a disastrous defensive display.
Raphinha missed last year’s Super Cup final against Real Madrid, watching his teammates get beaten 4-1 while suffering one of several nagging injuries that plagued his Barcelona career. 12 months later, there was no chance the Brazilian would miss Sunday’s showpiece.
In a match that included four players who finished in the top eight for the 2024 Ballon d’Or, Raphinha – a player who wasn’t even nominated for the prestigious individual award – outperformed everyone else on the pitch.
Blessed with a tank that never runs out and a mind as sharp as his pace, Barcelona’s rejuvenated vice-captain is enjoying the campaign of his career. Two goals and an assist in Sunday’s final take him to 30 goals in 27 matches this season.
Mbappe was presented as the laughing stock of the first Clasico of the season. Not only did the goalless striker fail to find the net, he was caught offside a record eight times. Only once did he force the aide’s flag to be raised on Sunday.
The Frenchman, who opened the scoring with the type of merciless finishing that abandoned him for much of the first half of the season, was initially considered offside when he was brought down by Szczesny after the break. Yet upon review, the semi-automated technology proved Mbappe right and led to an early shower for Barcelona’s third goalkeeper.
Even in second-half stoppage time, with Vinicius watching from the bench and Ancelotti leaving his number nine for 90, Mbappe deftly hacked past a blur of blue and red before slipping a wayward Bellingham into the surface.
Although the overall result is the one negative that can never be ignored, Mbappe can take many positives from his own performance.
Barcelona may have been the team that hoisted the massive Super Cup trophy into the night air of Jeddah, but it was Atletico Madrid who emerged as the real winners this weekend.
Sunday’s final was so exciting mainly because both teams have defensive flaws, including Barcelona. Madrid may have conceded five goals, but the Catalans allowed more shots, most of which came when they were at numerical parity.
Diego Simeone’s Atleti watched the chaos unfold after overtaking Osasuna on national duty. The narrow 1-0 victory represented a 14th consecutive victory – a new club record – and propelled Atletico to the top of La Liga.
Capital side Simeone are just one point ahead of their city rivals – Barcelona are six points behind in third, with all three teams having played 19 games – but Atletico have the best record defense of all the clubs in the top five European leagues, not to mention just Spain.
