You rarely see a team score directly after an opposition corner — a heavy touch somewhere along the way, a misplaced pass or defenders tracking back in numbers often result in lost momentum and missed opportunities.
The Supercopa de Espana final between Real Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday saw both teams score from the other’s corners in the first half alone.
That summed up a chaotic first half (extended by 10 minutes of stoppage time) and set the tone for a match that often had the feel of an exhibition. It ended in a record-extending 15th Supercopa for Barca, who put four goals past Madrid in consecutive games for the first time in Clasico history, running out 5-2 winners.
Here, The Athletic breaks down six moments that summed up a match defined by disarray.
The Briefing: Real Madrid 2 Barcelona 5 – Yamal and Co inflict a historic humiliation
It took less than five minutes for Madrid to open the scoring through some direct play from Kylian Mbappe and some slack defending from Barcelona (a consistent feature of the first half for both teams).
Hansi Flick’s side had forced two good saves from Thibaut Courtois through Lamine Yamal and Raphinha in the opening four minutes. Raphinha took the corner that was the result of the second of those stops, which Federico Valverde cleared. The ball fell in between Vinicius Junior and Marc Casado, with the Brazilian winning possession and charging forward before finding Mbappe.
Vinicius Jr’s pass put Mbappe into a one-vs-one against left-back Alejandro Balde (no offside concerns this time), who was indecisive. Mbappe feasted on that indecision, cutting inside and then out before clipping a finish over goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to make it 1-0.
The goal was thoroughly avoidable from a Barcelona point of view but, before the chaos, they had discovered two Madrid weaknesses. Raphinha’s shot came after Gavi ran off Eduardo Camavinga’s shoulder to get to the byline and float in a cross for the former Leeds United winger, who wandered into the space left between makeshift centre-back Aurelien Tchouameni and right-back Lucas Vazquez.
A combination of Camavinga’s slackness and that area of uncertainty between Tchouameni and Vazquez proved to be Madrid’s downfall later in the half.
There was some calm for the following 15 minutes, a period littered with errors from both teams and Mbappe going down with an apparent knock (the 26-year-old eventually played on), which made the game seem like an exhibition instead of an emotionally charged Clasico and final. But the tide was starting to turn, with Barca repeatedly dragging Madrid players out of position.
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Their reward was a Lionel Messi-esque moment of Yamal magic that levelled the scores.
The goal was made possible by Robert Lewandowski’s neat pass and Yamal filling the space created by Gavi’s off-the-ball movement to drag Camavinga out of position.
The equaliser did not bring composure to the game. As a re-energised Barcelona pressed higher, Madrid were forced to go long, resulting in another bizarre sequence two minutes later.
A throw-in, after Szczesny came out of his area to clear a long ball, saw Vinicius Jr find Jude Bellingham, who passed to Vazquez on the right. Vazquez’s shot was blocked by Balde, but Madrid worked the ball to Valverde for another try. His attempt was weak but got deflected behind for a corner.
Tchouameni outjumped Kounde from the set piece to force a save by Szczesny, with the rebound spinning away beyond the post with Vazquez lurking.
This second corner was cleared at the near post before a third one was met by Tchouameni again, this time with space for an acrobatic kick from the France international which got blocked.
All in all, a sequence that would not have been out of place in a mid-season friendly played in the Middle East.
Barcelona’s clever play, and more slack defending, led to a third chaotic moment in the 33rd minute. Throughout the opening half hour, Lewandowski dropped to receive the ball with back to goal, with Camavinga or Antonio Rudiger stepping out to close him down, leaving space in behind for Barca to exploit.
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On this occasion, a long ball from centre-back Pau Cubarsi was chased by Gavi instead of Lewandowski, with Rudiger winning the header. The tactical disorder of the game saw this fall straight to an unmarked Lewandowski, with Camavinga confused about whether to go after him or track Gavi.
As Barca recycled possession, Gavi stayed forward, with Yamal and Lewandowski occupying Camavinga’s attention. When Kounde’s cross deflected off Ferland Mendy into the box, Gavi was in position to reach the ball first and Camavinga, having failed to initially track him, lazily stuck a leg out, catching the Spain midfielder with his studs.
Having exploited that first weakness, Barca smelled blood and exploited a second less than two minutes after Lewandowski scored from the resulting penalty as Raphinha ghosted into the space between Tchouameni and Vazquez again to head home a Kounde pass.
Madrid’s desperation grew. They threw men forward, leading to yet more gaps in midfield.
These following screengrabs from the second and fourth minutes of added time in the first half emphasise just how much space Barcelona now had to dictate proceedings, and the potential pitfalls of Carlo Ancelotti playing Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Bellingham and Rodrygo together in attack.
Madrid were not done contributing to the chaos, though.
Exhibit four from the first half arrived after Madrid worked the ball to the right, loading up on Balde. This negated Barcelona’s high line and allowed Bellingham to slip Rodrygo in. He then cut one back for Vazquez, who tried to backheel it.
Balde intercepted but mishit his clearance, with Casado beating Mbappe to the ball but heading towards his own goal. Szczesny, unsure whether to catch or clear with his feet, was caught in an awkward position. Rodrygo, who was offside, slipped and allowed the ’keeper to gather.
That was quickly followed by a fifth moment of chaos — one which seemed unavoidable by this point.
Ronald Araujo, who had replaced an injured Inigo Martinez in the 28th minute, hacked at a routine clearance from a Mendy through ball to give Madrid a corner in the ninth minute of stoppage time. Rodrygo played a one-two with Camavinga before trying to find Valverde on the edge of the box.
Yamal anticipated his underhit pass and intercepted just beyond the D, with Raphinha and Balde now sprinting forward alongside him. Yamal found Raphinha, who cut inside Valverde. Balde then took the ball off his Brazilian team-mate’s toes before slamming a finish into the bottom corner to make it 4-1.
That end to the first half could not have been worse for Madrid — and they did not enjoy much respite after their trip back to the dressing rooms.
On 48 minutes — 90 seconds after Rodrygo volleyed a Vinicius Jr cross behind via the woodwork — Barca had their fifth goal.
Lewandowski dropped again to drag Rudiger out of position, allowing Casado to feed the ball to Raphinha after he ghosted in behind Tchouameni — the same errors from the first half happening again. He then did what Mbappe had done to Balde for the Madrid goal, stepping inside and outside an opponent, Tchouameni in this case, before lashing home.
You would imagine making it 5-1 would be enough to kill the game, with Barcelona happy to control proceedings and Madrid defaulting to damage limitation and Ancelotti did bring on centre-back Raul Asencio to replace Vazquez — but Barca gave them a glimmer of hope with a sixth moment of chaos in the 54th minute.
Raphinha attempted a ‘trivela’ pass just as Madrid began pushing men forward after a set piece. This was blocked by Asencio and fell to Bellingham, who beat Pedri in the air and passed to Mbappe as he ran in behind. The Frenchman took the ball past an onrushing Szczesny, who caught Mbappe’s trailing foot just outside the area.
After a VAR review, referee Jesus Gil Manzano sent the Barca ‘keeper off.
The resulting free kick was not taken until a full three minutes later, with Barcelona given time to bring on Inaki Pena to play in goal.
Pena was promptly beaten by Rodrygo, who arrowed a shot in off the replacement goalkeeper’s fingertips and the inside of the post to make it 5-2.
The remaining 30 minutes, with 11 men chasing the game against Barcelona’s 10, brought the calmest period of a frenzied contest, although did still have its moments.
The football cliche that previous results do not matter seems particularly relevant to El Clasico: the last 10 matches in the rivalry going back to the start of the 2022-23 season have produced a combined 40 goals and five wins for each team.
But with two lop-sided wins in a row against their rivals in the two most recent meetings, Flick’s team seem to have thrived in that chaos.
(Top photo: Movistar Plus/Wyscout)
