Real Madrid – Mallorca, Getty Images January 9, 2025, 10:59 p.m

The day before, in the semi-finals of the Spanish Super Cup, El Clasico had already taken place, the winner of which was Catalan Barcelona, ​​defeating Basque Athletic (2:0). And what a similar sign was on the poster of the main confrontation in the battle for the trophy, the next day Real Madrid was supposed to beat Balearic Mallorca, which took part in the final of the King’s Cup last year, and in the first round of the current season of La Liga, at the same arena in Jeddah the next day took points from Carlo Ancelotti’s team on their own field (1:1).

However, this time the obvious underdog of the confrontation did not have support on a neutral field for both sides, so, accordingly, he relied much less on his own initiative in the attack. Strictly speaking, Mallorca did not go forward in principle, while Real tried to constantly press, but something “galacticos” was constantly missing. Perhaps emotions from Vinicius, which he completely spent on face-to-face confrontation with Pablo Maffeo on the wing, so he had nothing left for football itself.

However, even without that, Real Madrid had a lot to offer in terms of work for goalkeeper Greif, even if it was mostly long shots. Of the interesting things in the actions of Hakoba Arrasate’s team, we only saw a moment from Larin in the half-circle before the penalty area, where Muriki headed the ball in the middle of the half, but the final shot went over the crossbar. That’s all. Agree, not much. Real Madrid had many more chances before the break, but in the end, Ancelotti’s team did not score any goals.

Also, the Madrid players started the second half of the match quite weakly and could not catch the required attacking pace. Chuameni also lost Larin in his own penalty area as a result of the Frenchman’s head-to-shoulder collision, and who knows, maybe young Asensio will have to enter the field from the first minutes in the final.

Yes, in the final, because Real Madrid still won that game and got there. This came as a result of Bellingham’s goal in the 63rd minute, when someone still had to finish the attack created by Vinicius on the right wing of the penalty area (yes, he did run away from Maffeo to the opposite side of the field), and Rodrigo and Mbappe tried to finish it off. but one hit the left post and the other finished off the goalkeeper. However, Jude still cleared all the questions.

And since Mallorca was exclusively defensive before that, if the Arrasate team did not last until the end, they could not offer anything else. In stoppage time, the Balearics were punished twice more by the efforts of Rodrigo and almost Braim, but Valiente prevented the latter from scoring with an accurate pass to Mbappe, but at the same time cut the ball into the net of his own goal. At the same time, the game ended in a fight, because Bellingham decided to give Maffeo the back of the head – not too carefully in the era of VAR and sometimes very interesting decisions of the Disciplinary Committee in Spain.

In the final, Real Madrid will play against Barcelona of Catalonia on January 12, while for Balearic Mallorca, the draw of the tournament has come to an end.

Real — Mallorca 3:0
Goals: Bellingham, 63, Valient, 90+3 (auto), Rodrigo, 90+5

Real: Courtois — L. Vasquez, Chuameni (Asensio, 55), Rudiger, Mendy – Valverde (Ceballos, 75), Bellingham, Camavinga – Rodrigo, Mbappe, Vinicius (Diaz, 87).

Mallorca: Greif – Maffeo, Valiente, Railillo (Copete, 33), Mojica – Morlanes (Costa, 70), Mascarel, Darder (Asano, 70) – Rodriguez (Prats, 81), Muriki, Larin (Navarro, 70).

Warning: Bellingham, Kamawinga