The first trophy of 2025. The first trophy of the Hansi Flick era. The first senior club trophy for Laminate Yamal. A record fifteenth Spanish Super Cup trophy…
But more than any of that, it was won by scoring 5 (five!) goals against none other than Real Madrid! The players had been saying before the game that they knew how to hurt their biggest rival. They’d already shown that when they beat them 4-0 at the Bernabeu in the league, and tonight they showed us again in Saudi Arabia!
That makes it the first time ever that Barça have scored four goals or more in two consecutive Clásicos!
For all intents and purposes, the game was over at half-time. Even despite conceding an early goal, Barça had romped their way into a 4-1 lead before they had gone in for the interval. Simply staggering… Lamine, Lewandowski (pen), Raphinha and Balde got the first half goals, and after Raphinha nabbed a second early in the second half, who knows what further wonders might have happened had the Barça rampage not been halted by a red card that meant they had to play out most of the second half with ten men?
Quick reaction
When Madrid took the lead after just four minutes, nobody could have imagined the scenes that followed. What a reaction we were about to witness…
Barça didn’t start badly. In fact, Thibaut Courtois had already been tested to the limit twice before an all-white counter attack resulted in Kylian Mbappé swivelling his way through the Barça defence. Wojciech Szczęsny was beaten for the first time since his comeback from retirement, but that initial setback would very soon be nothing but an anecdote.
Unperturbed by conceding, Barça kept plugging away and after Raphinha and Pedro had come close, a moment of sheer class from Lamine Yamal got the score back level. The youngster danced his way into the right place and then beat Courtois with a perfectly placed finish. 1-1.
On the rampage
A quarter of an hour later, Barça were ahead. Gavi was clipped by a high foot in the box, and although the referee originally waved play on, the VAR room insisted he should take another look. A penalty it was, and Robert Lewandowski did what Robert Lewandowski does from the penalty spot.
Madrid now needed to push forward, and Barça exploited their exposure at the back to add two more goals before the break.
A long Jules Kounde ball was brilliantly met by Raphinha’s head. That was 3-0, and deep into injury time Real Madrid were left kicking themselves as their late corner somehow ended with Alejandro Balde scoring for Barça at the other end!
Barça fans were rubbing their eyes to check that they weren’t dreaming. They weren’t, and there was yet more to come.
Szczęsny off
Moments after the restart, Rodrygo hit the Barça post and the Madrid players were still cursing their bad luck when Raphinha scored yet again! A brilliant delivery from Marc Casadó was capped by a fine solo run by the Brazilian. That was five. And there was still almost the whole second half yet to play. It was no longer a case of whether Barça would win as a one of how many they were going to do it by. The way things were going, there could easily have been more goals to come…
Until this point, the only downside to the evening had been the loss of Iñigo Martinez to a first half injury. But then came an unexpected twist in the tale. Szczęsny’s outstretched leg caught Mbappe when he was through on goal, and that was enough to convince the referee that Barça’s goalkeeper had to go.
Iñaki Peña was going to be playing in the final after all, and his first job was going to be to pick the ball out of the back of the net after Rodrygo converted the free kick.
Super champions
Barça still led by three, but they’d be playing the last half hour a man down. Madrid truly believed they still had a chance of clawing their way back into this.
For Barça it was now time to buckle back into defence, concentrate hard and work the clock down. Madrid have turned late escapism into an art form in recent times, but they weren’t going to be allowed to do any such thing tonight. The blaugrana did a fantastic job of keeping them in check and as the minutes ticked by, a Madrid comeback became less and less of a serious possibility.
As it happened, they wouldn’t score at all, the closest call coming when Mbappe looked certain to score but a simply breathtaking save from Peña made sure he didn’t.
Barça fans worldwide could relax and start rejoicing. The Super Cup was coming back on the plane to Catalonia, and the man who did the job of collecting it was Marc-Andre ter Stegen. A lovely touch to end a lovely night. Cue We are the Champions… and Força Barça!!!!
