In the end it was too much even for Real Madrid to overturn. Barcelona won the Supercopa de Espana final with a 5-2 victory over their formidable opponents in a crazy contest on Sunday night.
Similar to the last Clasico in October, Barcelona scored four goals in one half. Hansi Flick’s overpowering Catalans formed their quartet before the half-time whistle in the top game in Saudi Arabia, but Real Madrid did not go down without a fight.
Kylian Mbappe had scored the first goal before Barcelona’s lightning attack and forced goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to be sent off after an hour. Rodrygo reduced the deficit to three goals, but Barcelona were able to lift a trophy that will deflect, if only for a short time, the controversy that has surrounded the club recently.
How the game developed
Barcelona had been warned. “Madrid is one of the best teams in the world in transition,” emphasized Flick before kick-off.
It took Kylian Mbappe less than five minutes to justify the Barcelona coach’s fears by leading a long counter-attack that began from a corner that Real Madrid had initially defended. Vinicius Junior robbed Marc Casado on the edge of his own team’s penalty area and put away Mbappe. The Frenchman did everything but leave burn marks on the turf as he surged forward and turned Alejandro Balde before punting past Szczesny.
Despite the early concession, Barcelona remained undeterred, taking control of possession and chasing the ball after every rally. Lamine Yamal, so often the Catalans’ source of inspiration for attacks, brought Flick’s team level with an incredibly delicate finish. Barcelona’s teenage sensation tiptoed into the infield from the right wing and caught Thibaut Courtois off guard with a stylish cutback that trickled into the bottom corner.
Against the backdrop of the constant low hum of the predominantly 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 pitchside review, Jesus Gil Manzano agreed that Eduardo Camavinga’s dangling leg was enough to bring Gavi down. Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 meters.
Raphinha doubled Barcelona’s lead within three minutes of the penalty. The Brazilian stumbled into the yawning gap that existed within Madrid’s makeshift defensive line and fired a powerful header past Courtois to make it 3-1.
The epic first half game lasted almost an hour as stoppage time lasted nine minutes. On the last shot of the never-ending half, Madrid intercepted a short corner from Yamal. The winger sent fellow goalkeeper Raphinha on a dizzying counter-attack, which Alejandro Balde, bursting forward from left-back, finished with a drilled finish into the bottom corner.
Carlo Ancelotti tried to stem the bleeding by introducing Dani Ceballos at half-time, but the controlling Spaniard was helpless as Raphinha scored Barcelona’s fifth goal within three minutes of the restart.
Just when Flick’s side seemed headed for another Clasico defeat, their own weaknesses were exposed. Mbappe stormed behind the notoriously high defensive line and pushed the ball away from Szczesny. Barcelona’s substitute goalkeeper knocked down the Frenchman and was dismissed after a VAR review. Rodrygo hit the top corner of the resulting free kick, ensuring Inaki Pena’s first job as substitute goalkeeper was to get the ball out of his net.
The pace of a contest that didn’t so much ebb and flow as crawl violently from one end of the pitch to the other began belatedly to slow in the final 20 minutes. Barcelona’s ten men reluctantly dropped deeper, frustrating a Madrid side who were exhausted by a five-goal effort on either side of half-time.
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The line – Saudi Arabia’s grand idea of a single city spanning 170km – could have been built in its entirety between Aurelien Tchouameni and Lucas Vazquez as Barcelona scored their third goal of the night.
For all the glitz and glamor of Real Madrid’s attack, Raphinha’s free header was a stark reminder that half of the team’s rearguard on Sunday night consisted of a defensive midfielder alongside an aging winger.
Tchouameni appeared to be leaving an invisible caravan behind him as he tried to chase Raphinha at the start of the second half, but was denied by Barcelona’s vice-captain, who promptly made it 5-1. During the break that followed, Ancelotti brought in Vazquez for Raul Asencio – a young player who was making his first Clasico appearance but was at least familiar with the demands of playing in a back four.
Ancelotti was the driving force behind Madrid’s efforts to sign defensive players in January as the club looks to save up for a summer tour. The Italian’s urgency is not dampened by a disastrous defensive performance.
Raphinha didn’t sit and watch his teammates get beaten 4-1 in the Supercopa final against Real Madrid last year while he suffered one of the many minor injuries that undermined his Barcelona career. Twelve months later, there was no chance the Brazilian would miss Sunday’s highlight.
In a game that featured four players who made it to the top eight of the 2024 Ballon d’Or, Raphinha – a player who wasn’t even nominated for the prestigious individual award – outclassed everyone else on the pitch.
Blessed with a tank that never runs dry and a mind as sharp as his pace, Barcelona’s rejuvenated vice-captain is enjoying the campaign of his career. With two goals and an assist in Sunday’s final, he has 30 goal involvements in 27 appearances this season.
Mbappe was portrayed as the laughing stock of the first Clasico of the season. The scoreless striker not only failed to find the net, but was also caught offside a record eight times. He only forced the assistant flag to be raised once on Sunday.
The Frenchman, who opened the scoring with a ruthless finish that left him stranded for much of the first half of the season, was initially ruled offside when he was brought down by Szczesny after the break. But upon review, the semi-automatic technology vindicated Mbappe and led to an early shower for Barcelona’s third-choice goalkeeper.
Even in second-half stoppage time, with Vinicius watching from the bench and Ancelotti keeping his number nine on for the entire 90 minutes, Mbappe deftly pirouetted past a patch of blue and red before pushing an erratic Bellingham into the box.
While 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 giant Supercopa trophy into the night air of Jeddah, but it was Atlético Madrid who emerged as the real winners this weekend.
Sunday’s final was particularly exciting because both teams had defensive weaknesses – Barcelona included. Madrid conceded five goals, but the Catalans allowed more shots – most of them when the numbers were equal.
Diego Simeone’s Atlético players watched chaos unfold after they beat Osasuna at home. This narrow 1-0 victory represented a 14th consecutive win – a new club record – and lifted Atletico to the top of La Liga.
Simeone’s capital city side are just a point clear of their city rivals – Barcelona are in third place, six points behind, with all three teams having played 19 games – but Atlético has the best defensive record of any club in, let alone only, Europe’s top five leagues almost Spain.