Playing the country’s Super Cup at the beginning of the year seems to be becoming a tradition for Spanish football. Like what the teams are doing now in the so-called “format of four”, not yet on the territory of their own country, but where, in addition to the sandy horizons, there is still a lot of money. A lot of money. In Saudi Arabia, which this European winter sheltered not only Italy, but also a country from the Iberian Peninsula.

Four teams participate in the final stage of the competition — that’s true. As well as the fact that all the fans have really concentrated their attention around this tournament for only one match-up one step away from deciding the winner – El Clasico. And without any extraneous historical contexts of the realities of Spanish football. We were interested in the match between Real Madrid and Catalan Barcelona in Jeddah, where they previously defeated Balearic Mallorca (3:0) and Basque Athletic (2:0) in the semi-finals, respectively.

Does it happen that behind such a loud poster is actually a mediocre show? But of course, what happens is that football will cease to be itself without it. But it is good that this phenomenon did not have a place this time. In general. Already in the first minutes, Barcelona ran to someone else’s penalty area to look for a quick scored ball, but during the moments of Yamal and Rafinha, they did not find it, but instead caught a counterattack from Mbappe, who scattered everyone with feints on the right flank of the penalty area and shot past Szczesny.

And it lasted only five minutes of the game, and we actually saw three super moments. And the fourth one was seen immediately after that, but Rafinha again lost his duel to Courtois, just like the younger partner before that. The pressure from Barcelona was very strong, but for a long time it was not possible to create any danger after that, as Real seemed to eat away at the intent of Hans-Dieter Flick’s team.

However, the fact is that it only seemed so. In the 22nd minute, a touch pass from Lewandowski near the center circle launched Yamal to the right free right wing, and he moved to the center of the penalty area and subtly rolled into the bottom right corner with no chance for Courtois. It’s a pity that after that, Barcelona immediately lost Martinez due to injury, and everyone started looking at the fresh Araujo after the injury in the expectation that he will definitely bring something now.

And you had to actually look at the opposite side of the field, because the real Arabian heat started there. In the 33rd minute, Kamavinga’s careless play on the rebound of a pass from the right wing in his own penalty area ended with a kick to the leg of Gavi, a warning for the Frenchman, as well as a penalty, which was converted by Lewandowski with a kick to the right corner.

And just three minutes after that, Kunde found Rafinha in someone else’s penalty area with a magnificent diagonal from deep on the right flank, and he headed the ball into the far corner. Real then found themselves in such a situation that it seemed as if they had to go to play again, but the opponents gained crazy momentum and were not going to stop, so the “galacticos” simply resigned themselves to the fact that they bounced during Kamavinga’s foul, clearly for a second yellow against Yamal before halftime. which the referee forgave him.

However, Barcelona had no intention of forgiving Madrid for mistakes, especially in their half of the field during a corner kick. In the tenth minute of stoppage time, Flick’s team went on the counter-attack through Yamal and Rafinha, and the Brazilian assisted Balde on the left wing of a foreign penalty. It was simply impossible to stop this hurricane, although the “Blancos” came back after the break with a cross from Rodrigo.

However, what is its final value, if immediately after that, another counterattack by Barcelona began, and Rafinha scored from Casado’s pass to the left flank behind the defenders. The score at that moment was 1:5 — even after 0:4 in the first round at the Santiago Bernabeu, such a thing could not have been expected.

At this, the intrigue seemed to have finally died. However, there was a volunteer in the person of Szczesna, who in the 56th minute received a straight red card as a result of a foul against Mbappe outside his own penalty area. From the standard that Real earned at that time, Rodrigo distinguished himself with a shot to the right corner of Peña’s goal, who did not even manage to warm up after appearing on the field. And this could really be the story of another great Real Madrid comeback.

But not this time. Even the appearance of Modric on the field did not help this. Ancelotti’s team had one moment after the second scored goal, and that Mbappe shot in stoppage time managed to pull Peña. And for more, either Real did not have enough, or Barcelona was already so confident in its own success that it did not notice the game in the minority. And as a result, she won another Super Cup of Spain in her history.

Real – Barcelona 2:5
Goals: Mbappe, 5, Rodrigo, 60 — Yamal, 22, Lewandowski, 36 (pen.), Rafinha, 39, 48, Balde, 45+10

Real: Courtois — L. Vasquez (Asensio, 52), Chuameni (Modric, 64), Rudiger, Mendy (Fran Garcia, 75) — Valverde, Bellingham, Camavinga (Ceballos, 46) — Rodrigo, Mbappe, Vinicius (Diaz, 76).

Barcelona: Szczesny — Kunde, Kubarsi, Martinez (Araujo, 28), Balde — Casado, Pedri, Gavi (Peña, 59) — Rafinha (Ferrand, 79), Lewandowski, Yamal (Olmo, 58).

Warnings: Kamavinga, Rudiger, Vinicius, Chuameni, Asensio – Martinez (not on the field), Lewandowski, Araujo, Rafinha

Wojciech Szczesny (Barcelona) was sent off in the 56th minute (foul).