Barcelona coach Hansi Flick has showered praises on his players for their impressive performance against Real Madrid in the final of the Spanish Super Cup.
Flick’s men produced a stunning performance to defeat Real Madrid 5-2 in Saudi Arabia, to win their first trophy of the year in style.
Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring for Real Madrid in the fifth minute with a fine individual effort.
Lamine Yamal brought Barcelona back into the game in the 22nd minute with a sublime finish from Lewandoski’s pass.
Lewandoski gave Barcelona the lead from the spot in the 36th minute after Gavi was fouled in the box.
Raphinha and Balde scored two more goals before the end of the first half to go into the break with a 4-1 lead.
Three minutes into the second half, Raphinha scored the fifth goal as Barcelona coast to victory in the encounter.
Barcelona’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off in the 56th minute for a foul on Mbappe outside the box.
Rodrygo scored the resulting free kick to make it 5-2 but Real Madrid failed to take the numerical advantage as Barcelona held on to record another big win over their rivals after the 4-0 win in October in the La Liga.
Barcelona’s Hansi Flick was proud of his players for their unbelievable performance against Real Madrid.
He said: “I’m really proud of the team, the staff, the club, the fans, everyone. Today was an unbelievable match. For the coaches, not so much! But for the fans it’s really fantastic.
“We have to learn from every match, and today’s match.
“We can do things better, but we have a young team. We had some weeks where we didn’t perform so well, and our situation in the league now is not nice. We speak about all these things in the dressing room, but for me it’s important to focus on the next match.
“We know what we have to do on the pitch. “We believe in the boss and the boss believes in us,” captain Raphinha said in his post-match news conference, after being named the final’s MVP. “The important thing is we can fight for titles and win them.”
Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti was disappointed with his team’s performance, blaming their defensive lapses for the defeat.
He said: “We have to look at the reality. We didn’t defend well. We tried to press high and defend with a low block. They scored the goals easily, and we didn’t work hard, collectively or individually.
“We lost a lot of duels. That makes us sad and disappointed, but that’s football. We have to take that sadness home. I understand the sadness of our fans. We feel that, but we have to look forward, and prepare for the next game, and recover the good form we’d been in.”
“I won’t name anyone, I’m talking about the whole team. We didn’t defend well, we weren’t compact, and we have to defend better. We had an extra man [after Szczesny’s red card] and we couldn’t find solutions. But that doesn’t hurt more, I’m sad about the game as a whole.”
Barcelona fans will hope the victory can help the team rediscover their league form having won just once in seven games.
The Blaugrana will return to action on Wednesday against Real Betis in the Copa Dey Rey, while Real Madrid will take on Celta Vigo on Thursday.
