“I don’t know what’s going on with the clásicos but they have been a bit mad recently,” Carlo Ancelotti had said and here was another one. There had been 35 goals in the last 10 meetings between these two great rivals and there were seven more in the final of the Spanish Super Cup. The only pity was that it happened in the wrong place. FC Barcelona had put four past Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu in October; now they went one better on their way to an extraordinary 5-2 victory, 5,000km away in Jeddah, a night when they played with two goalkeepers ending with a third, the injured captain Marc Andre ter Stegen, lifting the trophy.
Barcelona had finished a man down and started a goal down, Wojciech Szczęsny beaten early and sent off later, but ultimately it didn’t matter. Hansi Flick’s side were just too good. Exceptional in fact, Raphinha tireless until he was withdrawn, cramp clawing at his calf, Lamine Yamal forever sending opponents the wrong way and Pedri gliding across another stage. For an hour they dominated and then, for half an hour, once Szczęsny had been shown a red card, they controlled with a coolness that made light of how long was left and the history and talent of the team before them.
