Real Madrid will play the Super Cup final, the match was decided in extra time

The first El Clasico to be played outside of Spain took place in the semi-finals of the Spanish Super Cup. Barcelona and Real Madrid met in Saudi Arabia. It was the 281st match between the two sides in their history and once again it was a close battle, with Carlo Ancelotti’s men emerging victorious. Madrid won 3-2 after extra time.

The White Ballet were the favourites in the match and also sent several shots towards Ter Stegen early on. The first shot on target was sent in the 12th minute after a breakaway by Vinícius Jr. The first quarter of an hour was played at a leisurely pace with no significant chances.

In the 25th minute, the capital’s players had already scored when Busquets’ hesitation was taken advantage of by Benzema, who then sent Vinícius Jr. on a breakaway and he made no mistake. Moreover, Real Madrid were doubly rewarded when the fans, who were more likely to support Carlo Ancelotti’s team in the Arabian Peninsula, woke up.

Barcelona had several interesting chances across the half, but it wasn’t until the 41st minute that Xavi Hernández’s charges were happy to score. A centred ball into the area went from Militao to the foot of Luuk de Jong and into the net from the Dutchman. Just before the break, the score was level. Moreover, the Blaugranas were very active until the end of the half, threatening to lay siege to Real’s penalty area. After 45 minutes, 1:1.

In the second half Barcelona, with Pedro and Ezzalzouli, dictated the pace from the start and there were several attempts towards Courtois. While Barcelona failed to threaten the goal with their shots, Real’s first big chance in the 69th minute ended up on the right post of Ter Stegen’s goal. Karim Benzema gave the Catalan supporters a small heart attack.

But in the 73rd minute, Barcelona’s defence completely collapsed. Benzema was initially picked out, but the ball came to him once more and he made no mistake from his position in the middle of the pitch behind the small whitewash. For the second time in the match, the White Ballet took the lead.

Barcelona, however, did not fold. On the contrary, they began to push their opponents even harder and the reward came. After a short corner, Ansu Fati stepped up to celebrate his return to the line-up after a long injury. All signs were beginning to point to extra time. And it did happen.

The set time started with Barcelona again under pressure, but they couldn’t come up with anything, so in the 98th minute came the penalty. A quick counter-attack looked scrambled for a long time, but eventually Federico Valverde got to the ball and, from a similar position to Benzema in the second half, moved the score to 3-2 to Real Madrid.

The Catalans still tried to turn the situation around, but the score remained the same after Valverde’s goal until the final whistle. Real Madrid scored their 100th competitive win against Barcelona to advance to Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final

The other finalist will be decided on Thursday between Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid. The match kicks off at 8pm Czech time.

Source: Spanish Super Cup