Real Madrid 2-5 FC Barcelona: Match review | OneFootball

FC Barcelona handed Real Madrid one of their worst defeats in recent times in Jeddah to lift the Spanish Super Cup for the 15th time.

As expected, there were no changes made to the Real Madrid lineup and it was the same as the Mallorca game.

Thibaut Courtois was thrusted into action just in the first 2 minutes when he had to make a crucial save from an awkward Lamine Yamal shot from outside the box.

Just a minute later, the Belgian forced a corner after making a brilliant save to prevent Raphinha from scoring a header.

Another couple of minutes later, Vinicius Junior began a Madrid counterattack. He laid the ball to Kylian Mbappe who went on his own, beat Alejandro Balde and slotted the ball home to give Madrid the lead just 5 minutes into the final.

From there on, it was Barcelona who enjoyed possession and created opportunity after opportunity. Their plan finally came to fruition after Marc Casado found Lamine Yamal who had acres of space up front and went on to score a Messi-esque goal with his left foot to give Barcelona the equaliser.

Inigo Martinez had come off in the 28th minute after suffering a niggle and was replaced by Ronald Araujo who has not been a part of the Barcelona starting eleven this season because of his injury.

Exactly 4 minutes later, Eduardo Camavinga made a reckless challenge inside the box by putting his leg up and hitting Gavi on his thigh to get Barcelona the penalty. The recently out-of-form Robert Lewandowski made no mistake whatsoever and put the Blaugrana into the lead.

Then, against the run of play, 6 minutes later, Jules Kounde, out of nowhere, put an amazing cross inside the box and Raphinha latched onto it for the third of the night for the Blaugranes. The referee had surprisingly awarded 9 minutes of additional time to end the first half but that went up to 14.

Raphinha was the wrecker in chief who created the counter attack after beating Fede Valverde twice like it was nothing, found Alejandro Balde who scored the fourth of the night and potentially had put the game to bed.

It was an abysmal display from Real Madrid to say the least. No structure in the midfield, defence was out of shape as a result of just one or two passes and it seemed all over in just the 1st half.

Los Blancos however, did begin the 2nd half on a positive note after Rodrygo hit the woodwork from a Vinícius cross but luck was not on his side.

A few seconds later, it took Casado just one pass to break open Madrid’s defence and he found Raphinha with the Brazilian beating Aurelien Tchouaméni and then Antonio Rüdiger with ease to seal the deal for FC Barcelona.

Szczęsny was on the receiving end of a red card after a VAR review after he had fouled Mbappe who was through on goal from outside the box.

As a result of the free kick, Real Madrid found themselves 3 goals down now after Rodrygo had smashed the free kick home. 30 minutes were left and the Merengues had a chance to do the impossible since Barcelona were a man down.

But after that, the intensity went down massively. Not typically what Real Madrid is used to do doing. The only clear-cut chance which came after this was when Inaki Pena made an amazing save from Kylian Mbappe’s shot – in the 95th minute of the game.

It was all over and a humiliating night had come to an end for Real Madrid, as Barcelona emerged victorious to lift the title.

Only Mbappe and Rodrygo were the players who could walk out with their heads held high. Jude Bellingham and Fede Valverde had a shocker of a game. Camavinga should have kept his cool and defensively even Rüdiger was not spared.

Carlo Ancelotti was shocked at the first half display and admitted that everyone was sad at the result. Luka Modric admitted that it was better to lose a final now than to lose one later.

In a surprising video clip which surfaced, President Florentino Perez could be heard saying to Luka Modric when the players were receiving their medals that, “eventually we had to lose a final, right?”

It was very unlike Perez and an unexpected reaction from the President himself. Following this humbling defeat, Real Madrid now take on Celta Vigo at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Copa Del Rey Round of 16.