Real Madrid consolidated its control of the Clasico confrontations recently and beat its arch-rivals Barcelona 3-2 following the extension, in the semi-finals of the Spanish Super Cup at King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday.
Real achieved its fifth victory in a row at the expense of the Catalan team, following it had defeated it 2-1 at Camp Nou in October in the local league, in the first match since the departure of Argentine star Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
He scored for Real, Brazilian Vinicius Junior (25), French Karim Benzema (72) and Uruguayan Federico Valverde (98), while Barcelona’s Dutchman Luke de Jong (41) and Ansu Fati (83) scored.
Real Madrid qualified for the final to face the winner between Athletic Bilbao, the defending champion, and Atletico Madrid, the league champion, who meet on Thursday.
Real Madrid has the opportunity to approach Barcelona’s record of 13 titles, while the royal team was crowned 11 times previously.
Despite his loss, Barcelona will be pleased with his improved performance than the previous one, as he hopes to use it to make up for his stumble in the first half of the season, as it currently occupies sixth place in the Spanish League, 17 points behind leaders Real, with a match less for “Blaugrana”.
Also, coach Xavi Hernandez’s team was eliminated from the Champions League from the group stage for the first time in nearly twenty years, and therefore he will use his performance in the Clasico to re-inject enthusiasm in his ranks to finish the season in a better way befitting the history of the Catalan giant.
In contrast to him, the royal is living its best days locally and in Europe, as it leads the standings by five points from the second Seville, with a match less for the latter, as it prepares to face Saint-Germain and Messi in the second round of the Champions League competition.
On a full stadium in the Saudi capital, Ferran Torres played his first match with Barcelona since his move from Manchester City in the winter transfer window.
Xavi made three changes to the squad that played the last match that ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw once morest Granada following his last goal in the 89th minute, so Dutchman Franck de Jong returned to replace Nico Gonzalez, while Uruguayan Ronald Araujo returned following recovering from injury to replace him. Eric Garcia.
On the side of Real, Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti made two changes from the last match. The Austrian David Alaba was absent due to injury and was replaced by Nacho, while Daniel Carvajal played on the right side of the defense instead of Lucas Vasques.
The match came as a peak of excitement and rivalry from its start, with the royal team having an advantage in the first thirty minutes of the meeting, although the Catalan team showed a desire to fight its arch-rival.
Merengue relied on counter-attacks to pose a real threat to German goalkeeper Mark Andre ter Stegen.
Plenty of goals
After mutual opportunities that did not rise to the level of real danger, the brilliant Vinicius Junior managed to open the scoring in favor of Real only 25 minutes into the match, through a counter-attack following Benzema managed to steal the ball from Sergio Busquets in the middle of the field, before the Frenchman started and passed to Vinicius Inside the area, the latter did not hesitate to shoot an elegant ball on the left side of the goal (25).
Barcelona tried to absorb Real’s outburst by restoring some balance in the middle, and got an opportunity to respond quickly following Frenchman Ousmane Dembele ran before passing a cross that found De Jong’s head, but it came directly into the hands of Belgian goalkeeper Thibois Courtois (30).
Luke de Jong equalized for Barcelona in the second opportunity he had following a cross from Dembele on the left side, as Real defender Militao was trying to clear the ball, but it hit the Dutch striker directly into the goal (41).
The Catalan team’s performance was very active following De Jong’s goal, as the second half was hot and full of excitement between the two sides, mutual attacks, and the lack of an absolute advantage for one team over another.
Real almost regained the lead following an attempt by Benzema inside the area following a pass from Vinicius, but the French striker’s shot rebounded from the post (69).
Real continued his pressure and Benzema managed, three minutes later, to give Real precedence once more, taking advantage of a pass from Frenchman Ferland Mendy on the left side. Benzema showed great smoothness in front of the goal following a first shot saved by goalkeeper Ter Stegen, but he was in the right place to settle the goal following the ball returned to Vinicius, who passed a ball inside the area, and it bounced from the hand of goalkeeper Ter Stegen to Benzema, who followed it directly into the goal (72). .
While many thought that Benzema’s goal had decided the match, Barcelona was able to show great determination, so substitute Ansu Fati, returning to the stadiums following recovering from injury, realized the tie with a header following a cross pass from Jordi Alba (83).
And in a scenario that was not likely by the most optimistic regarding Barcelona’s performance in recent times, the two teams fought for two additional games, and the last word was for Real and the experience of his players in these moments, as substitute Valverde managed to score the winning goal from a counterattack following Rodrygo’s start on the right side before he The latter passes to the area where Vinicius is stationed, who left the ball untouched to Valverde, who followed it smoothly into the goal, giving Real its third lead in the match (98).
Barcelona almost equalized for the third time, but Courtois was on the lookout for two consecutive attempts by Busquets and Dembele from close range (101).
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