Madrid Derby In Saudi Arabia For Spanish Super Cup

Real Madrid and Atletico to meet each other in the Spanish Super Cup final, being held in Saudi Arabia for the first time

The Spanish Super Cup has taken a new format this year. Usually, the winner of the Copa Del Rey and the winner of La Liga will face each other in a two-leg game. This is comparable to the Community Shield, in which the winner of The FA Cup and the winner of the Premier League play each other.

This year they have adopted a different approach. The winner of the Copa Del Rey and the runner up as well as the top two in La Liga go into a four-team Super Cup tournament. If one of the teams has done both e.g. won the cup and the league then its the next highest placed team in La Liga.

This new format will carry on for the next three years at least. The four teams to make it to the competition this year were Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. The two semi-finals took place mid-week and the final is on Sunday at 18:00.

There has been much criticism towards the Spanish FA for allowing the final to be played in Saudi Arabia. Many broadcasters didn’t want to take it, due to human rights issues in the country. It’s not confirmed but apparently the Spanish FA are set to make €40 million from the competition. Only 9% of the 12,000 tickets available to Spanish fans were taken.

The final on Sunday will be between Real Madrid and Atletico, which is set to be a huge game.

Valencia vs Real Madrid

Real took control from the game early on. Toni Kroos opened the scoring in the game, directly from a corner as the tweet above shows. The Valencia keeper hadn’t seen Kroos ready to take it and the German midfielder caught him out trying to arrange his defence.

Isco then added another in the first half. The ball fell to him near the penalty spot and he smashed it into the bottom left corner, leaving the keeper rooted to the spot. Modric then put the game to bed in the 65th minute. A step over in the box and then a shot with the outside of his foot saw the ball go into the bottom left corner again.

Valencia did give their fans something to cheer about. A penalty in the last minute converted by Parejo and the game finished 3-1 to Real Madrid.

Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid

The second semi-final of the week was a game between first and third in La Liga. It was a tight affair first half with no goals scored. The highlight of it was the coming together of Messi and Felix, who carried on arguing walking back to the changing rooms at half time.

Early in the second half though the goals came. Koke scored first and them Messi replied moments later. The six-time Ballon d’Or winner somehow finding a gap in the box to fire it past Oblak.

Barca then doubled their lead through ex-Atletico Madrid player Antoine Griezmann. He followed the ball in heading it into an empty net after it was deflected back to him. Barca had two goals disallowed also, one for Messi and one for Pique.

Atletico took advantage of this and scored a penalty through Morata in the 81st minute. Now with the confidence to get another, they took the lead through Correa in the 86th minute. Neto made a good save but the ball rolled into the net and Atletico were through to the final.

Going into the game on Sunday, Real are the favourites to win in 90 minutes at 23/20 on Betway. Atletico are priced at 11/5 to win. When the two sides met earlier this season, the game finished 0-0. For it to be the same again on Sunday is 0-0.