The Blaugrana punished some miserable Blancos defending in an embarrassing defeat for Carlo Ancelotti’s side
Real Madrid were thrashed in a second straight Clasico, continuous woeful defending letting them down in a 5-2 battering at the hands of Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final. Los Blancos were consistently beaten on the counter attack, and conceded five goals within 50 minutes to make a truly horrible Clasico loss.
This was not a calm game. Nor was it cagey. Instead, from minute one, chaos unfolded. Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring, leading a well-orchestrated counter-attack before shifting the ball out of his feet and smashing it home. And that was as good as it got.
Lamine Yamal offered the Barca response, strolling into the right channel, cutting onto his stronger foot and finding the bottom corner. They added a second after 36 minutes, when Robert Lewandowski converted from the penalty spot. The Blaugrana’s third came on the back of some tepid Madrid defending, Raphinha floating into acres of space and converting a free header. Balde made it four after another sloppy piece of play, an underhit pass from a corner giving Barca a clean break down the pitch, which ended with a calm side-footed finish into the bottom corner. Raphinha turned it into a drubbing early in the second half, twisting Aurelien Tchouameni inside out and wrong-footing Thibaut Courtois.
Things seemed poised to turn after an hour. Wojciech Szczesny was shown a straight red for scything Mbappe down outside the box. Rodrygo curled the ensuing free-kick into the top corner. But that was about it. Madrid couldn’t create against a dogged 10-man Barca, and suffered a second straight forgettable derby defeat – while watching their arch-rivals lift a trophy at the end of it all.
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