Barcelona smashed Real Madrid 5-2 in an exhilarating Spanish Super Cup Clasico final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to take the first trophy of the Hansi Flick era.
Madrid got their first goal through Kylian Mbappe, but Barcelona scored five as their team had their keeper Wojciech Szczesny sent off in the 88th minute.
Madrid tried to get revenge on their 4-0 home loss against Barcelona in the La Liga Clasico in October but instead got battered and bruised by their rivals in Jeddah.
With Mbappe opening the scoring, Lamine Yamal doubled the lead, Robert Lewandowski put Barcelona in front from the spot, Raphinha got two, with Alejandro Balde also on target.
Rodrygo Goes scored a penalty for Madrid after the Brazilian free-kick, but they could not build on their advantage with further numbers, in a humiliating loss for the European champions.
“I think today is a good day because we got a one of the best teams in the world and that’s twice in the past two weeks Real Madrid, and that’s unreal,” Flick told reporters.
“We had a title here and we’re just really excited… today is a day to look up to this team”.
The heavy defeat was attributed to the way that his Real Madrid players failed to defend, according to Carlo Ancelotti, manager of the team.
“We were really bad and that cost us the game — they scored their goals easy,” Ancelotti told Movistar.
“We’re bummed, we all are, it’s bad and we don’t have to pretend that… we have to move on, we just can’t do anything else.
It was Real Madrid who put Real Madrid ahead in the fifth minute with Mbappe’s penalty corner, following a stout Barcelona attack.
The French striker, angered many times by the referee’s decision in the league defeat at the hands of the Catalans, scored on the half-way line when Vinicius collected the ball and, after lunging forward into the box, snuck past Szczesny.
It took a stunning solo effort from 17-year-old Yamal to make it 2-2, the Spanish winger dribbling in from the right and then rifling a low finish inside the near post like he does against Barca’s former hero Lionel Messi (he’s known as Lionel Messi for a reason).
Barcelona continued to press and progressed thanks to Lewandowski’s spot kick Eduardo Camavinga came late and carelessly clattered Gavi.
Raphinha bundled home Barcelona’s third, from the back post, following a cross from Kounde, and they grabbed their fourth just before halftime at the break.
Yamal and Raphinha got together and the second put in Balde who got through Courtois.
Barcelona continued the same after the interval and Raphinha had the fifth with a dribble and finish after Marc Casado brought him in.
There were 10 men on the pitch for the Catalans as Mbappe stormed in from the opposite flank, circling goalkeeper Szczesny who then felled him outside the box and after VAR was rejected.
Rodrygo, who hit the post before, blazed the free-kick past Szczesny’s sub Inaki Pena.
Mbappe brilliantly sat on Jude Bellingham and the England man was denied in added time by a fantastic Jules Kounde tackle.
The Frenchman himself also came close to a second goal with a fantastic one-two, but Pena smothered his cross. He was the best (Madrid player),’ said Ancelotti after a good start for Mbappe to life at the club after joining from Paris Saint-Germain.
We are not always able to win and if we need to lose a cup, it’s better this one,’ the Madrid midfielder Luka Modric said.
Barcelona made Dani Olmo, a playmaker, available for the first time since being granted permission to play for the club temporarily (a matter that delayed the semi-finals last week).
But the 5-star performance provided more rumours than football when Barca claimed an historic 15th Spanish Super Cup.
“That’s special, we haven’t had a trophy for a season, and that’s always special and then in a Clasico against Real Madrid,” Barcelona defender Kounde told Movistar.