Riyadh (AFP)- Real Madrid reached the Spanish Super Cup final after beating Atletico Madrid 5-3 after extra time in a thriller in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
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Mario Hermoso and Antonio Rudiger exchanged early goals before Ferland Mendy sent Madrid ahead at Riyadh’s Al-Awwal Park stadium.
Antoine Griezmann scored a landmark goal to equalize for Atlético, becoming their all-time leading scorer and Kepa Arrizabalaga’s own goal sent the Rosilbancos ahead, but Dani Carvajal equalized for Madrid and forced extra time. was forced to.
As the game headed towards penalties, Stefan Savic’s own goal under pressure from Joselu put Madrid ahead and substitute Brahim Diaz won on the counter attack by beating Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak out of position.
Madrid will face either Barcelona or Osasuna in Sunday’s final, who will meet in the other semi-final on Thursday.
“Atletico played very well and so did we, it was a great game,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti told Movistar.
“We won because we had more energy in the final stages… (the substitutes) all performed well.”
Diego Simeone’s Atletico are the only team to beat Madrid in September this season, and they started strongly as Samuel Lino tested Arrizabalaga shortly before taking the lead.
Hermoso headed in the opener six minutes later from Griezmann’s corner as Rodrigo failed to challenge him in the air.
Rudiger equalized for Madrid in similar fashion when he saved Savic and nodded in Luka Modric’s corner.
Madrid, who are unbeaten in 20 matches, were in the lead and full-back Mendy took full advantage of this by cleverly flicking on Carvajal’s low cross.
milestone man
Griezmann put the ball into Arrizabalaga’s hands before he gave Atletico the equalizer in the first half, taking a pass from Modric before heading home from the edge of the box.
The goal moved him ahead of the late Luis Aragones as Atlético’s all-time top scorer with 174 goals.
Rodrigo almost put Madrid ahead before the break, dancing brilliantly past Atlético’s defence, but Oblak parried his effort and latched onto the loose ball before it could curl across the line.
Saudi spectators, despite mainly supporting Real Madrid, jeered Los Blancos midfielder Toni Kroos as a second-half substitute, as they followed the trend of players moving to the country from European football in search of wealth last summer. Was criticized.
Oblak made a good save to thwart Carvajal before Atlético took the lead with 12 minutes remaining.
Arrizabalaga collided with Alvaro Morata as he tried to catch a cross and the ball bounced off the on-loan Chelsea stopper and into the Madrid goal.
Madrid protested, pleading a possible foul by Morata but the officials saw no violation.
However Carvajal fired the rebound into the top corner with five minutes remaining after Jude Bellingham’s effort was cleared off the line.
The game tightened up in extra time, no longer end-to-end, with neither team creating clear chances due to the leeway afforded them during the opening 90 minutes.
Madrid finally went ahead four minutes from the end, as substitute Joselu headed Carvajal’s cross to Savic, who fired the ball beyond Oblak and into his own net.
Atlético were desperate for a leveller, Oblak was forced out of position and Diaz advanced to beat him to the ball and head into the empty net from distance to seal the victory.
Spanish champions and defending Super Cup winners Barcelona will aim to repeat last season’s Clasico final by defeating Osasuna on Thursday.
Atletico face Real Madrid three times in less than a month and their next clash will be in the Copa del Rey next Thursday.
“We have a chance for revenge and we need our fans in our stadium,” Atletico’s Koke told Movistar.
However, Simeone disagreed with the midfielder.
“It’s not revenge, there’s no revenge in football,” Simeone said.
“This is a new knock-out game that will be different from today.”
© 2024 AFP
