In the end, it was too much for even Real Madrid to reverse. Barcelona claimed the final of the Spanish Super Cup with a 5-2 victory over their fearsome enemies in a crazy contest on Sunday night.
As in the last Clásico in October, Barcelona scored four goals in one half. Hansi Flick’s rampaging Catalans accumulated that quartet before half-time in the decisive match played in Saudi Arabia, but Actual Madrid did not go down without a fight.
Kylian Mbappé had opened the scoring before Barcelona’s attack and forced the expulsion of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny on the hour mark. Rodrygo reduced the deficit to three goals, but Barcelona held on to win a trophy that will distract, albeit briefly, from the controversy that has surrounded the club lately.
How the game developed
Barcelona was warned. “Madrid is one of the best teams in the world in transition,” Flick stressed before the start of the match.
Kylian Mbappé needed less than five minutes to justify the Barcelona coach’s fears, leading a long counterattack that began from a corner originally defended by Actual Madrid. Vinicius Júnior robbed Marc Casado on the edge of his team’s area and sent Mbappé away. The Frenchman did everything but leave burn marks on the turf as he advanced, turning Alejandro Balde inside out before stabbing past Szczesny.
Despite the early concession, Barcelona did not let itself be deterred, taking control of possession and chasing the ball after each turnover. Lamine Yamal, often the Catalans’ source of offensive inspiration, provoked Flick’s level with an incredibly delicate finish. Tiptoeing along the inside of the field from the right wing, Barcelona’s teenage sensation tricked Thibaut Courtois with a delicate backhand that trickled into the bottom corner.
Against the backdrop of a constant murmur from the mostly Real Madrid crowd in Saudi Arabia, there was a roar of disapproval when the referee pointed to the penalty spot in the 36th minute. After a review at the foot of the field, Jesús Gil Manzano agreed in which Eduardo Camavinga’s dangling leg had been enough to knock Gavi down. Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 meters.
Raphinha doubled Barcelona’s lead three minutes after the penalty. The Brazilian entered the enormous chasm that existed within Madrid’s improvised backline and with a powerful header beat Courtois to make it 3-1.
The epic of the first half lasted for an hour and nine minutes of injury time were added. On the last serve of the endless half, Madrid had a short corner that Yamal intercepted. The winger thwarted his teammate Raphinha in a dizzying counterattack that Alejandro Balde, bursting in from the left wing, finished with a shot drilled into the bottom corner.
Carlo Ancelotti tried to stop the bleeding by introducing Dani Ceballos at half-time, but the Spanish controller could do nothing when Raphinha added the fifth for Barcelona three minutes into the restart.
Just when Flick’s team seemed headed for another Clasico thrashing, its own flaws were exposed. Mbappé burst in behind that infamously high backline and tipped the ball away from Szczesny. Barcelona’s substitute goalkeeper brought down the Frenchman and was sent off after the VAR review. Rodrygo scored the resulting free kick into the top corner, ensuring that Iñaki Peña’s first task as substitute goalkeeper was to recover the ball from his goal.
The pace of a game that more than came and went but clashed violently from one end of the field to the other began to slow down late in the last 20 minutes. Barcelona’s ten men fell more reluctantly, frustrating a depleted Madrid by a series of five goals either side of half-time.
Check the player ratings of Actual Madrid 2-5 Barcelona here.
The Line, Saudi Arabia’s grand conception of a single city stretching 170 kilometres, could have been built entirely in the space between Aurelien Tchouameni and Lucas Vázquez when Barcelona scored their third of the afternoon.
For all the glitz and glamor of Actual Madrid’s attack, Raphinha’s free header was a potent reminder that half of the team’s rearguard on Sunday night was made up of a defensive midfielder alongside an aging winger.
Tchouameni seemed to be towing an invisible caravan when he tried to chase Raphinha at the start of the second half, getting nowhere, the Barcelona vice-captain who quickly made it 5-1. At the next break in the game, Ancelotti replaced Vázquez with Raúl Asencio, a youngster who was making his first appearance in a Clásico, but who was at least familiar with the demands of playing among four.
Ancelotti has been the driving force behind Madrid’s push to recruit defensive players in January, while the club intends to save for the summer. The Italian’s urgency will not have been quelled by a disastrous defensive display.
Raphinha missed last year’s Super Cup final against Actual Madrid, watching his teammates be defeated 4-1 while enduring one of the many nagging injuries that were undermining his Barcelona career. 12 months passed and there was no chance that the Brazilian would miss Sunday’s big final.
In a match that included four players who finished in the top eight of the 2024 Ballon d’Or, Raphinha, a player who was not even nominated for the prestigious particular person award, outshone everyone else on the field.
Blessed with a tank that never runs empty 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 goal involvements in 27 appearances this season.
Mbappé was considered the laughingstock of the first Clásico of the season. The striker, who scored no goals, not only failed to find the net, but was also caught offside a record eight times. Only once did he force the assistant flag to be raised on Sunday.
The Frenchman, who opened the scoring with the kind of ruthless finishing that deserted him for much of the first half of the season, was initially ruled offside when Szczesny brought him down after the break. However, after the review, the semi-automatic technology vindicated Mbappé and caused an early rain for Barcelona’s third goalkeeper.
Even in second-half stoppage time, as Vinicius watched from the bench and Ancelotti left his number nine for the 90 minutes, Mbappé deftly pirouetted past a blur of blue and red before slipping a rebellious Bellingham into the area.
While the average result is the only negative that can never be ignored, Mbappé can draw many positives from his own performance.
Barcelona may have been the team that lifted the massive Super Cup trophy into the night air of Jeddah, but it was Atlético Madrid who emerged as the true victors 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 conceded more shots, most of which came when they had numerical parity.
Diego Simeone’s Atleti saw chaos unfold after overcoming Osasuna on domestic duty. That narrow 1-0 victory represented the 14th consecutive victory (a new club record) and took Atlético to the top of La Liga.
Simeone’s capital team is only one point ahead of its city rivals (Barcelona is six points in third place and the three teams have played 19 games), but Atlético has the best defensive record in any club in Europe’s top five leagues, let alone just Spain.
