Xavi Hernández had said that one would be enough but, in the end, at last, it was two. A Robert Lewandowski strike and another from Lamine Yamal on 92 minutes gave Barcelona a win by more than a single goal for the first time in 21 matches, the longest run in their history, to progress to the final of the Spanish Super Cup. There, in Saudi Arabia on Sunday night, Real Madrid await, as they did last year. “It’s been a long time, it’s true, but it doesn’t matter: it was about winning,” the midfielder Frenkie de Jong said when it was finally over.
Their opponents Osasuna, meanwhile, head back to Spain. This may be a minor competition to most but for a club without a trophy it mattered, however much they would have preferred to have fought for it back home. They have a 5,000km journey ahead of them, time enough to lament an opportunity lost. Or, they felt, taken away, David García complaining about what he called a “clear foul” from Andreas Christensen on José Arnaiz in the build up to Lewandowski’s opening goal, even if replays suggested there was little there. “We deserved more but it wasn’t to be,” García said.
