Neither style nor DNA nor Cruyffism. A real slap in the face. A blow to the chin that does a lot of damage. A sidereal disaster in which Madrid destroyed a soft and uncompetitive Barça from start to finish. Ancelotti’s team was a cyclone from the first minute and Xavi’s team barely appeared, being a toy in the hands of a powerful, superior and determined opponent. A year after Barça gained momentum in Riyadh with a dream final, the Barcelona fans lived a nightmare and delivered the Super Cup in a ridiculous way. Vinícius was in charge of breaking up the pathetic Barça structure with three goals before the break. Barcelona almost never responded and only had a moment of light when Lewandowski reduced the gap.
An oasis in the desert, never better said. With this blow, Xavi’s project is once again in question. Lost in the League and shaken by Madrid, the next few weeks are presented as fundamental. Because Barça does not react and more and more water enters the boat of the team and the club.
Xavi had appealed to Cruyff’s spirit the day before to try to win. To try to embrace the philosopher’s stone, the coach opted for a formation with four midfielders, but everything went wrong from the beginning. Pedri’s return to the eleven for Raphinha was the only change but it meant a modification of the scheme. Ferran Torres was Lewandowski’s companion while Sergi Roberto acted as a false left winger. On this occasion the formula did not work. Barcelona wanted to repeat the football speech of the 2023 final against a Madrid that had been launched and adding 20 games without losing, but nothing came of it.
Because Madrid also knows how to have the ball, because it has outstanding midfielders and because it came into action without hesitation. He is willing to hammer the back of Barcelona’s defense, so vulnerable throughout the season. If the defense is a flan and no one puts pressure on the Kroos, Bellingham or Valverde, the disaster is a foregone conclusion.
So it was.
It wouldn’t take long for Madrid to advance. Bellingham filtered a through pass towards Vinícius, Koundé did not step forward in time and the Brazilian stood before Iñaki Peña. He skilfully dodged it and began his festival.
Barça had barely had the ball and looked groggy. Ancelotti’s men, who know how to smell blood, struck again and three minutes later Vinícius scored his second goal after an assist at Rodrygo’s pleasure. But between 1-0 and 2-0, Iñaki Peña had had to extract a shot from Rodrygo himself.
Xavi’s team was shipwrecked like a puppet in the hands of Ancelotti’s team. Vinícius was snacking on Araújo, turned to the right like when the Brazilian was a pure winger. But this season the forward has more freedom to draw diagonals. By the time the Uruguayan saw him, Barça had lost momentum.
That looked worse than bad for Barcelona, ??inconsistent is not enough. But with the score at 2-0, Madrid recovered and the Blaugrana took advantage of that to caress the leather and gain confidence. Ferran Torres was able to close the gap with a whiplash that hit the crossbar and Lewandowski ran into Lunin. The Ukrainian goalkeeper and Kroos were the new additions to Ancelotti’s eleven and both performed.
Where Lunin couldn’t do anything was against a spectacular volley from Lewandowski that became 2-1. The tempo of the Pole’s shot was perfect, crowning a long play by Barça and catching the rebound from the white defense.
A little over half an hour passed and Barcelona got into the game. But, again, Madrid took the ball. In the short time that elapsed between Lewandowski’s goal and Araújo’s penalty against Vinícius, Madrid monopolized the ball against a contemplative rival. Xavi protested the maximum penalty but the Uruguayan hit the Brazilian in the neck inside the six-yard box. Vinícius, fired up, made no mistake from the spot to score a hat trick before the break.
The Madrid part of the stands, the majority, chanted “Vini, Vini” and the bleeding became bigger again for Barça, who couldn’t even go into the break with a bang. Pedri almost scored but sent his shot grazing the post.
The Madrid team Upon returning from the locker room there was not even a hint of a comeback. On the contrary, because every time Madrid had the ball, the pressure from Xavi’s team was a real farce. Either their players arrived late or they looked at it, at the same time that the whites were adorning themselves.
The Blaugrana coach’s response was to make a triple change. Fermín, João Félix and Lamine Yamal by Sergi Roberto, Pedri and Ferran.
But there was nothing to do and even less so when Rodrygo nailed the fourth after a lukewarm rebound from Koundé. There was almost half an hour left and the final was becoming an ordeal for Barcelona, ??with the threat of a setback of the kind that leaves you trembling. To make matters worse, Araújo saw the second yellow for a late tackle on Vinícius. The result could have been even more overwhelming among the “olés” of the white fans. This is not how you can face a final.
