Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona: Match report & talking points from thrilling Supercopa de Espana final | OneFootball

In the end, it was too much for even Real Madrid to overturn. Barcelona claimed the Supercopa de Espana final with a 5-2 victory over their fearsome foes in a bonkers contest on Sunday night.

Much like the last Clasico in October, Barcelona scored four goals in one half. Hansi Flick's rampant Catalans racked up that quartet before the half-time whistle in the Saudi Arabia-based showpiece, but Real Madrid didn't go down without a fight.

Kylian Mbappe had opened the scoring before Barcelona's blitz and forced the dismissal of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny on the hour-mark. Rodrygo reduced the deficit to three goals, but Barcelona held on to earn a trophy which will distract, however briefly, the controversy that has surrounded the club of late.

How the game unfolded

Barcelona had been warned. "Madrid are one of the best teams in the world in transition," Flick stressed ahead of kick-off.

Kylian Mbappe needed less than five minutes to justify the fears of Barcelona's manager, leading a pitch-long counter-attack which began from a corner Real Madrid were originally defending. Vinicius Junior robbed Marc Casado on the edge of his own team's box and set Mbappe away. The Frenchman did everything but leave scorch marks in the turf as he hared forward, twisting Alejandro Balde inside out before stabbing beyond Szczesny.

Despite the early concession, Barcelona would not be deterred, taking control of possession and hunting the ball after each turnover. Lamine Yamal, so often the source of the Catalans' attacking inspiration, teased Flick's side level with an impossibly delicate finish. Tiptoeing infield from the right wing, Barcelona's teenage sensation bamboozled Thibaut Courtois with a dainty reverse which trickled into the bottom corner.

Played to the backdrop of a constant low hum from the largely Real Madrid-leaning crowd in Saudi Arabia, there was a roar of disapproval when the referee pointed to the penalty spot in the 36th minute. After a pitch-side review, Jesus Gil Manzano agreed that Eduardo Camavinga's dangling leg had been enough to fell Gavi. Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 yards.

Raphinha doubled Barcelona's advantage within three minutes of the spot-kick. The Brazilian wandered into the yawning chasm which existed within Madrid's makeshift backline, thumping a powerful header beyond Courtois to make it 3-1.

Raphinha had plenty of reason to celebrate on Sunday / Yasser Bakhsh/GettyImages

The first-half epic stretched towards an hour as nine minutes of stoppage time were tacked on. With the last kick of the never-ending half, Madrid had a short corner intercepted by Yamal. The winger set his fellow goalscorer Raphinha away on a dizzying counter-attack which Alejandro Balde, bursting forward from left-back, ended with a drilled finish into the bottom corner.

Carlo Ancelotti tried to stem the bleeding with the half-time introduction of Dani Ceballos, yet the controlling Spaniard was helpless as Raphinha added a fifth for Barcelona within three minutes of the restart.

Just as Flick's side appeared to be cruising towards another Clasico mauling, their own flaws were exposed. Mbappe burst behind that infamously high backline and toed the ball away from Szczesny. Barcelona's back-up goalkeeper hacked the Frenchman down and was dismissed after a VAR review. Rodrygo picked out the top corner from the resulting free-kick, ensuring that Inaki Pena's first job as substitute goalkeeper was to retrieve the ball from his net.

The tempo of a contest which didn't so much ebb and flow as crash violently from one end of the pitch to the other belatedly began to slow in the final 20 minutes. Barcelona's ten men reluctantly dropped deeper, frustrating a Madrid side frazzled by a five-goal blitz on either side of half time.

Check out the player ratings from Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona here.

Real Madrid need defensive reinforcements

Carlo Ancelotti was no impressed by what he saw on Sunday / FADEL SENNA/GettyImages

The Line - Saudi Arabia's grand conception of a single city stretching across 170km - could have been constructed in its entirety in the space between Aurelien Tchouameni and Lucas Vazquez when Barcelona scored their third of the evening.

For all the glitz and glamour of Real Madrid's attack, Raphinha's free header was a potent reminder that half of the team's rearguard on Sunday night comprised of a defensive midfielder next to an ageing winger.

Tchouameni seemed to be towing an invisible caravan when he tried to chase after Raphinha at the start of the second half, getting nowhere Barcelona's vice-captain who promptly made it 5-1. At the subsequent break in play, Ancelotti hauled Vazquez off for Raul Asencio - a youngster making his first Clasico appearance, but at least he was familiar with the demands of playing in a back-four.

Ancelotti has been the driving force behind Madrid's push for defensive recruits in January, while the club are intent to save up for a summer spree. The Italian's urgency won't have been quelled by a disastrous defensive display.

Raphinha's renaissance continues

Raphinha was unstoppable on Sunday / Yasser Bakhsh/GettyImages

Raphinha sat out last year's Supercopa final against Real Madrid, watching his teammates get thumped 4-1 while enduring the one of many niggling injuries that were undermining his Barcelona career. Fast forward 12 months, and there was no chance of the Brazilian missing Sunday's showpiece.

In a game which included four players who finished in the top eight of the 2024 Ballon d'Or, Raphinha - a player not even nominated for the prestigious individual award - outshone everyone else on the pitch.

Blessed with a tank that never empties and a mind as sharp as his turn of pace, Barcelona's rejuvenated vice-captain is enjoying the campaign of his career. Two goals and an assist in Sunday's final takes him up to 30 goal involvements in 27 appearances this season.

Kylian Mbappe enjoys solo salvation

Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring on Sunday night / Yasser Bakhsh/GettyImages

Mbappe was framed as the laughing stock of the season's first Clasico. The goal-less forward not only failed to find the net, but was caught offside a record-equalling eight times. Only once did he force the assistant's flag to be raised on Sunday.

The Frenchman, who opened the scoring with the type of ruthless finish which deserted him for so much of the first half of the season, was initially deemed to be offside when he was felled by Szczesny after the break. Yet, upon review, the semi-automated technology vindicated Mbappe and led to an early shower for Barcelona's third-choice goalkeeper.

Even in second half stoppage time, while Vinicius watched on from the bench and Ancelotti left his number nine on for the full 90, Mbappe deftly pirouetted past one blur of blue and red before slipping a wayward Bellingham into the box.

While the overall result is the one negative that can never be ignored, Mbappe can take plenty of positives from his own display.

Diego Simeone would have been a happy spectator / Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/GettyImages

Barcelona may have been the team hoisting the enormous Supercopa trophy into the Jeddah night air, but it was Atletico Madrid who emerged as the real victors this weekend.

Sunday's final was so enthralling chiefly because both sides are defensively flawed - Barcelona very much included. Madrid may have conceded five goals, but the Catalans gave up more shots - most of which came when they had numerical parity.

Diego Simeone's Atleti watched the mayhem unfold after edging past Osasuna during domestic duty. That narrow 1-0 win represented a 14th consecutive victory - a new club record - and took Atletico to La Liga's summit.

Simeone's capital outfit only have a one-point cushion above their city rivals - Barcelona are six points behind in third with all three teams having played 19 games - but Atletico boast the best defensive record of any club in Europe's top five leagues, let alone just Spain.