January 13, Jeddah In Sunday’s Spanish Supercup final, FC Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 5-2 thanks to an incredible first half performance.

According to Xinhua, Hansi Flick’s team had a 4-1 lead at the interval and managed to hang on with relative ease against the Madrid onslaught, even though goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for pulling down Kylian Mbappe early in the second half.

Before Mbappe gave Madrid the lead in the fifth minute, Thibaut Courtois made two incredible stops against Raphinha and Lamine Yamal in the first few minutes, giving Madrid the advantage.

Vinicius sent the ball to the Frenchman, who made a strong move from deep, ducked the defender, and scored with his right foot as a Barca assault broke down.

Raphinha shot over the face of the goal as Barca continued to generate opportunities, and Yamal equalized in the 22nd minute.

In order to provide room for the young winger to sprint onto his ball, Robert Lewandowski dropped deep and moved Antonio Rudiger out of place. Then Yamal went inside and used an angled shot to wrong-foot Courtois.

Ronald Araujo had to replace Inigo Martinez due to injury, but Barca grabbed the lead after 36 minutes when Eduardo Camavinga’s reckless tackle on Gavi gave them a penalty kick, which Lewandowski put into the corner.

After the Brazilian sneaked in entirely untouched past Lucas Vazquez, Real Madrid’s defense allowed Jules Kounde to angle a cross for Raphinha to head home three minutes later, making the score 3-1.

After Madrid made a terrible mess of a short corner in the final action of the first half, Yamal was able to grab possession and there were nine minutes of injury time. In order to defeat Courtois with a low shot, he slipped the ball to the charging Raphinha, who then transferred it to Alejandro Balde.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti substituted midfielder Dani Ceballos for Camavinga while his team was down 4-1.

In the 47th minute, Rodrygo’s volley for Real Madrid almost struck the post.

However, it was Barcelona’s night, and that became evident a minute later when Raphinha finished calmly to make it 5-1.

Barca lost focus after taking a four-goal lead when Mbappe sprinted onto a through pass and was taken down by Szczesny outside his penalty area.

Referee Gil Manzano was forced to dismiss the goalie after a VAR assessment, giving Barca 30 minutes to play with 10 men.

Some may have been anticipating another spectacular Real Madrid comeback when Rodrygo hammered the next freekick into the goal to make it 5-2, but Barca sank deeper, defended narrowly, and took the edge off the game with considerably more ease than anticipated.