MATCH REPORT | FC Barcelona win the Super Cup in a final for the history books (2-5)

The collision of world football’s superstars that a match like the Spanish Super Cup final brings often triggers the emergence of marvellous events on the pitch that enhance fans’ pure enjoyment of football. This Sunday was once again one of those days.

The match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will go down in the record books of our beautiful game as a demonstration of talent, surprises, great play, impossible goals and an incredible pace that delighted the tens of millions of fans who followed the game all over the world.

Both teams started with the same starting line-ups as in the semi-finals and from the first whistle of Gil Manzano's first whistle, the high pressing of the Catalans began to bear fruit for Hansi Flick's side.

A couple of great saves from Courtois saved the Madrid goal before Kylian Mbappé left the entire Jeddah stadium open-mouthed with a decisively powerful run, which the Paris star finished with a tidy finish beyond Szczęsny.

It was the first blow of the match, but it did not knock Barcelona off their path, and they were confident that the supersonic speed of their wide players, together with their ability to execute in attack, would bring about a comeback.

The match was a succession of memorable moments that came together to provide an unbeatable climax to the Spanish Super Cup.

And it was an impressive display from a magician named Lamine Yamal, who began the first half with an impressive slalom run with the ball glued to his foot before flicking it calmly past Courtois and inside his left-hand post.

From then on, the goals flowed. First, a penalty was awarded at the behest of the VAR for a Camavinga foul on Gavi, which Robert Lewandowski converted late in the first half.

Shortly afterwards, a lethal Raphinha arrived on the scene and managed to head home Koundé's measured cross from the right flank and then the Brazilian set up Balde to finish off the counter-attack just before half-time.

Barcelona's Raphinha was honoured with the player of the match award.

After the restart, Ancelotti tried to find solutions with his players determined to turn the situation around. Rodrygo came close to reducing the deficit, but the play from São Paulo’s volley hit the crossbar and in the next move Raphinha was again clinical on a Barcelona counter-attack.

With the final result all but decided, a chase to resort the pride of the Madrid side emerged with Szczęsny's dismissal and Rodrygo's subsequent goal, which served to make up for an exciting climax, even with the scoreboard heavily favouring the Catalans

FC Barcelona opted to sit back and hold on to what they had and Real Madrid came close to scoring with a couple of clear chances thanks to the outstanding attacking contributions of Kylian Mbappé, who was his team's outstanding player.

The final whistle blew and the euphoria of a Barça side crowned as the undisputed kings of the competition with their fifteenth trophy, two more than Real Madrid.

Fireworks, lights, confetti and We are the champions accompanied the lifting of the first major trophy of the year by currently injured goalkeeper Marc André ter Stegen. The shotstopper’s teammates gave the German the honour of lifting the cup that left fans with an emotional last image of a Super Cup that is getting bigger and bigger in terms of prestige by the day.

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