Super Cup Final
Score 2. – 5
12 January 2025
Stadium: King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah
First Half Game Analysis
This was the first El Clásico of 2025 between the Champions of Spain and the Champions of Europe. If Real Madrid had won the match, it would have been 14 wins of the Super Cup and equaled Barcelona’s, but Madrid failed to do so.
In the 2nd minute of the game, Lamine had a good shot aiming for the far pole, and Courtois pushed the ball away for a corner kick to Barcelona. Lamine depicted in the very beginning how dangerous he could be in that game, and this proved right in the later development.
Again in the 4th minute, Raphinha got an open ball to head into the post; thankfully, Courtois again punched away the ball to safety. It was a very obvious goal for Barcelona, while the Madrid defenders were nowhere. The bad sign of defenders’ weakness was quite obvious with this instant itself.
As Barcelona took the corner, the ball was squandered away, and the ball was picked up by Vinicius, and he passed the ball to Mbappe about the center. Mbappe took the ball and went at full speed, entering the box and beating the defenders; his ball shot into the Barca goalpost, defeating the keeper. This was Mbappé-like, and his superb goal that all the fans were waiting to see. The goal came inside the 5th minute of the game.
Mbappe superb goal
Raphinha had a solid shot at the far post and missed by inches only in a rapid attack by Barca in the 8th minute. Barca showed their rapid attacking capability and posed a threat easily at the Madrid post.
Some time ago, Mbappe had a problem with his left leg as a Barca defender stepped over his foot, and now in the 16th minute again, he had some problem with the same foot. He needed a medical treatment for this reason. As the treatment took a longer time, a Barca player, Raphinha took the medical kit bag out of the ground. It was something unique in action for all onlookers.
Up to the 20th minute, the ball possession was only 17% for Real Madrid and 83% for Barcelona. By this time, Barca had a couple of corner kicks and some solid shots at the post without result, though. So we could see that Barca was creating more chances and pressure, though Madrid had one goal advantage up till then.
In the 21st minute, Lamine got the ball on his left side of the ground, and with ease and fluid moves, he beat Tchouameni and slotted the ball into the near post where Courtois could not reach. This was a perfect goal skill displayed by Lamine. Mainly it was the lack of Tchouameni, who could not intercept and let Lamine score a so easy goal. The defenders could not exert much interception here as Mendy and Vazquez were mere onlookers only.
In the 24th minute, Madrid led the attack with a couple of shots taken, but they were blocked. Afterward, we got three continuous corners; in one of them, Tchouameny got to head the ball, but it landed straight into the keeper. In the initial attack, Vazquez should have slid a pass to the right where Vini and Rodrygo were available; instead, he tried to shoot the ball. The right decision at the right moment does make a huge difference in games.
Up to half an hour, the score sheet was 1-1, and the game seemed in balance. Though Madrid was lacking proper and dangerous attacks on the Barcelona posts. There were a lot of missed passes that kept losing the ball to the opponent. Forwards were not getting the balls as much as they should have received. Madrid did not look as sharp as they should have for this grand final against the arch-enemy team.
In the 33rd minute, inside the Madrid box, Camavinga happened to make slight contact with his left foot on the thigh of a Barca forward, and the player grounded himself. After the referee’s screen analysis, he declared it a penalty. But to me it looked like a deliberate dive as the players were already in diving mode. The Camavinga touch was just a nudge; the impact could not have been that much.
Camavinga foul
Lewandowski scored the penalty, adding 2 goals to 1 of Madrid.
The commentators do agree that it could not be that impactful for a fall, but anyway, penalties are given in such situations. Here on, the fall of Madrid began downhill in this game.
In the 39th minute, Raphinha received a good high ball from the left flank and he came rushing and with a powerful head, he scored their 3rd goal. He was given so much space and no one to intervene. Tchouameni and Vazquez were close to him, and nothing could they do to stop him. It was a massive defensive mistake of Madrid, and thus was punished badly.
Lewandowski almost scored another goal by heading that was pretty close in the 42nd minute at the pass of Raphinha. Madrid’s defense was so vulnerable that Barcelona looked as if they could score goals on their whims. While at the same time, Madrid had not been making any attacks at all at the Barca goalpost for a long time.
Valverde tackled the ball well, snatching it from Raphinha in the 50th minute. This kind of strong and fast interception was lacking in Madrid’s defense.
In the extra 55th minute, Madrid got a corner ball and that ball was played so badly that they gave away the ball to opponent, and they led a counter attack. Again, in their attack, they had a precise ground ball into the far side into the box away from Courtois’s reach. Madrid’s blunders were well utilized by Barcelona in a precise manner.
Madrid was down by 4 goals to 1 before the half-time; such a miserable game Madrid had that evening in Jeddah. Except for one occasion, Mbappe and Vini were missing in the game with no sign anywhere. Madrid lacked a game plan, ball control, attacks, and was terrible in defense. They seemed to undermine the ability of the players of Barcelona, who were sharper, precise, and well organized.
Second Half Game Analysis
In the second half, Ceballos took over the place of Camavinga, and the rest were the same players.
In the 48th minute, Rodrygo got a good cross ball from Vini from the left, but Rodrygo’s shot hit the post while being close to the post with no one to challenge him. He should have scored in such a situation. With this kind of missed opportunity, there would be very little chance to win a game with big teams, no doubt.
Immediately afterward, Barca led a counterattack, and it was Raphinha again who, on his own, dribbled the defenders and shot the ball, dodging Courtois once again easily, and the ball found its home. Barca striker showed his composure, balance, and precision to score the goal even in tight situations.
With the ease Barca players were finding the Madrid goalpost, it looked like Madrid might have the maximum goals conceded in the history of El Clásico by the end of the match. Even after such a bad game of first half, Madrid had not improved in the second half their defense and kept committing the same mistakes.
In the 55th minute, there was a twist in the story as Mbappe was fouled by the goalkeeper. As Mbappe was rushing toward the box, the goalkeeper, Szozesny, tackled with his right foot on the left foot of Mbappe, which caused him to fall down. After reviewing the incident, the goalkeeper was given a red card, and that changed the scenario of the game.
Madrid had to face only 10 men. Barcelona had plenty of time in hand and had a good opportunity to make up for the first half loss. Unfortunately, the score line was too high to recuperate.
The free kick was taken in the 60th minute by Rodrygo after the change of the goalkeeper of Barcelona. Rodrygo’s free kick was an amazing one; the ball precisely slotted into the post with a slight touch of the goalkeeper. Madrid had 2 goals and had to fight with the 10-man Barcelona team.
Rodrygo Free Kick Goal
With this twist of the event, Madrid could fight back and create an opportunity for regaining the game back to their favor.
In the 64th minute, Tchouameni was substituted by Modric to avoid a worse situation as Tchouameni got a yellow card.
After the red card event, Barcelona had reveresed the game plan and playing a more defensively, while Madrid had been trying to find its next goal, but with little success as Barca built a strong wall of defense.
In the 76th minute, Fran Garcia substituted Mendy, and Brahim came in for Vinicius.
Madrid had not been able to have that extra man gain in the game, as they have not been able to add any goal during this period. This was not a good sign at all.
In the 86th minute, Rudiger got the ball in the box, but he could chest it and then lost it, while he should have utilized that ball in other ways inside the box. He should have chosen to head it or so. A lot of balls inside the box have been wasted away because of the lack of proper actions and ideas. Also, many corner shots were not good enough to get any good result. So I presume Madrid needs to work on and improve in many sides of the game.
Madrid got a free kick on the left of the box just by the line in the 88th minute. Rodrygo’s ball just could not find any player, and it was too high and went for an out ball without any advantage to the team.
In the 91st minute of extra 8 added minute, Mbappe passed a back passed ball to Bellingham who could only barely touch the ball before it landed in the hand of the keeper or it could have been a sure goal ball for Bellingham. Another good chance missed.
Again in the 93rd minute, Rudiger got the pass from Mbappe. Rudiger was fairly in a good position, but he mishandled the ball and missed the much-needed goal for the team. A minute later, Rudiger got the ball to head into the post, but the ball landed straight into the keeper.
Mbappe tried his best by solo effort in the 96th minute, this time too his shot was blocked by the keeper. The last corner kick could not be utilized well either.
Though Madrid was down by 4 to 1 by the half time, and once Barcelona started playing with 10 men the score was 2 to 5. The great team like Madrid should have been able to drag that difference within the time of 40 minutes plus to much narrower or even equalled. But Madrid could do nothing with that advantage of one man to the team of Barcelona, who proved to be an equally good opponent and maintained their goal margin confidently.
Drawbacks of Real Madrid
Defense lapses
I think Madrid did not defend as strongly as they should have against a stronger team like Barcelona. They tried to play a high game against Barcelona, and they had to pay the price for it. When Madrid pushed forward, the defense was caught off guard by Barcelona forwards by carrying out fast breaks. Also, defenders could not mark and check the attacking players, and they got away with good goal-scoring chances.
Lack of creativity in attacks
Forwards and midfield players lacked proper connection and ideas of attack. Their attack was just ordinary and guessable ones – just throwing ball int the center of the box – and they failed to materialize. There was a lack of fluidity, variation, and ideas in attack.
Poor finishing and slow build-up
Madrid build-up had always been slow in the attack and has been this way for all games, so the opponent gets time to set up well for defense. This build-up has to be fast and quick without giving any chance to prepare for the opponent team; then only the attack can be successful.
Finishing had been very poor; that was shown several times in the game in the second half. There were several instances that they should have scored but failed. The sharpness of finishing with precision has always been lacking among the players of Madrid that I have seen. And this lack of skill cost Madrid this El Classico and final Super Cup too. In big matches, the chances come rarely, and if you fail to manipulate such rare chances, the winning percentage goes down.
Other Weaknesses
Poor corner balls could not help Madrid in any way, as the balls could not reach the proper players in the waiting. Since Kroos left, Madrid lacks good corner ball feeds.
A lot of missed and lost passes by Madrid players, either by lack of agility or lack of observation. Sharp and accurate passes were missing. Also, forwards like Mbappe and Vini needed to get as many passes as possible, but Mbappe rarely got good passes to create chances for scoring goals.
No forward feeding, means no goals for the team.
Players Performance
In this game, Vini was nowhere to be seen and was ineffective in the play. Mbappe and Rodrygo tried their best and occasionally flashed their skill, like Mbappe’s great goal and Rodrygo’s free kick goal, which were superb. Mbappe did not get much ball in the game to show his magic at all.
Bellingham, Valverde, and Camavinga were too, could not impact the game and so the misery of the team. Camaving gave away a penalty goal by a silly mistake inside the box.
It is mainly the weakness in our defense, like Achilles’ heel, that played the key role in the game for this kind of result against Real Madrid. As two of our players, Tchouameni and Vazquez, were unable to defend well on their side of the field, Barcelona scored easy goals against the team.
Conclusion
It was clearly seen that Real Madrid lacked proper play and strategy in both its offense as well as in defense. The team struggled to organize defensively, was painfully slow in attack, and lacked the creativity and finishing sharpness to defeat a team like Barcelona. If Madrid wants to win the big games, they need to work on these weaknesses discussed above and also find some genuine defenders to build a stronger defensive line for the team.
Statistics
Real Madrid Barcelona
Goal Score 2 5
Ball Possession 48% 52%
Passes 404 433
Shots 19 14
Shots on target 6 8
Corners 9 5
Fouls 14 13
Yellow Cards 5 4
Red Card 0 1