Barcelona wins the Spanish Super Cup with a thrilling victory over Real Madrid 3-2

Barcelona retained the Spanish Super Cup title for the second year in a row by defeating its traditional rival Real Madrid 3-2 in the final confrontation on Sunday in Jeddah.

The Blaugrana owes its record sixteenth title to Brazilian Rafinha, who scored the winning goal after he had also opened the scoring for his team (36 and 73), before Polish Robert Lewandowski added the second goal, while Brazilian Vinicius Junior (45 + 2) and Goncalo Garcia (45 + 6) scored the goals for Real, whose coach Xabi Alonso has remained without any title since he took over.

French star Kylian Mbappe was the most notable absentee from Real Madrid’s starting lineup, as he did not fully recover from his injury to his left knee, before Alonso brought him on in the 76th minute.

Mbappe, who joined his teammates in Jeddah after missing the first two matches of the new year against Real Betis in the Spanish League (5-1) and the Super Cup semi-final against Atletico Madrid (2-1), was replaced in the starting lineup by the Spanish young man Goncalo Garcia (21 years old), who scored a hat-trick against Betis.