By Tannistha Dey
Barcelona won the Spanish Super Cup through a remarkable El Clásico triumph against Real Madrid in a 3-2 victory in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, with two goals from Raphinha leading the Spanish outfit to their record-breaking 16th Spanish Super Cup victory in their careers.
Raphinha made the difference in Jeddah, as he scored in both halves, while Robert Lewandowski scored as Barcelona beat Xabi Alonso’s team for the second consecutive year in the Super Cup final. Even when Barcelona ended the game with 10 men, owing to Frenkie de Jong’s red card in the final minutes of the game, the team managed its fourth trophy since head coach Hansi Flick took over.
Barcelona began brightly, despite it being somewhat of a contentious start to the Saudi evening, as they controlled possession while Madrid backed off and hoped to catch them on the break-through of Vinicius Junior. The Brazilian, who had not scored in his last 16 games, was momentarily dangerous down the side and forced the first stop of the match on Joan Garcia. Raphinha was also astute on the retrieval side to cut out Vinicius during a potent counter-attack.
This pressure eventually paid off in the 36th minute when Raphinha scored the opening goal. This was just seconds after he had unleashed a great scoring opportunity wide. As the winger struck the ball early, it trickled in below the Belgian goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois.
Vinicius imposed himself down the left, nutmegged Jules Kounde, and chipped past Garcia to equalize the match and trigger chaos in the first half as Madrid scored through individual genius. Barcelona took the lead four minutes into stoppage time when Robert Lewandowski, who was set up by Pedri, chipped the ball into the goal.
Home team Madrid, however, struck back almost immediately as the game kicked off. It was Gonzalo Garcia who capitalized on the headed attempt by Dean Huijsen that ricocheted off the crossbar, and the shot was enough for the game to be 2-2 at the end of the first half.
There was little action in the second period, as opportunities came few and far between as the intensity of the game subsided. Following Rodrygo Goes as he saw a weak shot saved by Joan Garcia, Thibaut Courtois denied teenager Lamine Yamal.
It came to an end in the 73rd minute in favour of Barcelona when Raphinha’s strike from distance deflected off Raul Asencio and went through Courtois to make it his seventh in his previous five outings. Kylian Mbappe, who came in as a substitute as Los Blancos looked for an equalizer, had little influence in the game.
This is the fifth El Clásico win in the last six matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid, which has been a positive streak for Barcelona under new manager Hansi Flick.