Supercopa de España: Barcelona 3-2 Real Madrid
Raphinha 36 73, Lewandowski 45+4; Vinícius 45+2, García 45+7
Football is wild sometimes, and this was one of those times. A night that didn’t always make sense but was a lot of fun ended with every player on the pitch inside the Barcelona penalty area and the ball dropping through the crowd to Raúl Asencio, standing there on the edge of the six yard box. The board had gone up with six minutes on it, those six minutes had passed and now here it was, his moment and another twist: the chance to somehow take the Super Cup final to a penalty shootout.
Instead, with the clock on 96.43 Asencio headed at Joan García. On his line, the goalkeeper grabbed the shot and held on hard; his team had done the same, two goals from Raphinha and another from Robert Lewandowski enough to take the trophy, goals from Vinícius Júnior and Gonzalo García not enough to take it from them. Whether they will be enough to keep Xabi Alonso in his job remains to be seem; Jeddah was supposed to be the final judgment but there may be those that judge Madrid’s reaction here reason for him to remain.
It was reason for Barcelona to celebrate, certainly. And yet as the whistle went, Pedri couldn’t even join his teammates in leaping about, cramp seeing him crash to the floor instead. It had been that kind of evening, defying easy analysis, everyone exhausted. Barcelona might wonder how they had been on edge in the first place, so dominant had they seemed in moments, but then this is Madrid and this is the game that never lets you down. Now, though, they had made it to the other side, lifting the first, and least significant trophy of the season.
