• Barcelona led 5-1 shortly after half-time
  • Wojciech Szczesny was sent off in the second half
  • Real Madrid reduced the deficit without completing an unthinkable comeback
  • Raphinha scored twice and set up another in a brilliant display
  • Kylian Mbappe and Rodrygo impressed for Real Madrid
  • Wojciech Szczesny was sent off but Barcelona held on to win the Supercopa de Espa

Lamine Yamal's precise poke into the far corner after 22 minutes cancelled out Mbappe's early opener. Robert Lewandowski fired Barcelona in front with a penalty in the 36th minute shortly before Raphinha headed the Catalans into a 3-1 lead.

The Brazilian needed just three second-half minutes to nab Barcelona's fifth of an evening to savour. Bursting behind Madrid's reshuffled backline, Raphinha had already beaten Aurelien Tchouameni but found time to chop past the makeshift centre-back for the fun of it before picking out the bottom corner.

Madrid, as they have so often proved, would not go gentle into that good night. Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for a mistimed lunge on Mbappe shortly before the hour-mark. From that very free-kick, Rodrygo found the top corner to reduce the deficit to 2-5.

Barcelona claimed their first trophy of the season on Sunday night, romping to a 5-2 victory against their fiercest rivals Real Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana final.

A scarcely believable first half was bookended by blistering breakaways from both sides. Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe broke the deadlock with a sumptuous individual goal after just five minutes. Yet, by the time Alejandro Balde completed a forward thrust in the last of ten added minutes to the first half, Barcelona led 4-1.

In the end, it was too much for even Real Madrid to overturn. Barcelona claimed the Supercopa de Espana final with a 5-2 victory over their fearsome foes in a bonkers contest on Sunday night.

Much like the last Clasico in October, Barcelona scored four goals in one half. Hansi Flick's rampant Catalans racked up that quartet before the half-time whistle in the Saudi Arabia-based showpiece, but Real Madrid didn't go down without a fight.

Kylian Mbappe had opened the scoring before Barcelona's blitz and forced the dismissal of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny on the hour-mark. Rodrygo reduced the deficit to three goals, but Barcelona held on to earn a trophy which will distract, however briefly, the controversy that has surrounded the club of late.

How the game unfolded

Barcelona had been warned. "Madrid are one of the best teams in the world in transition," Flick stressed ahead of kick-off.

Kylian Mbappe needed less than five minutes to justify the fears of Barcelona's manager, leading a pitch-long counter-attack which began from a corner Real Madrid were originally defending. Vinicius Junior robbed Marc Casado on the edge of his own team's box and set Mbappe away. The Frenchman did everything but leave scorch marks in the turf as he hared forward, twisting Alejandro Balde inside out before stabbing beyond Szczesny.

Despite the early concession, Barcelona would not be deterred, taking control of possession and hunting the ball after each turnover. Lamine Yamal, so often the source of the Catalans' attacking inspiration, teased Flick's side level with an impossibly delicate finish. Tiptoeing infield from the right wing, Barcelona's teenage sensation bamboozled Thibaut Courtois with a dainty reverse which trickled into the bottom corner.

Played to the backdrop of a constant low hum from the largely Real Madrid-leaning crowd in Saudi Arabia, there was a roar of disapproval when the referee pointed to the penalty spot in the 36th minute. After a pitch-side review, Jesus Gil Manzano agreed that Eduardo Camavinga's dangling leg had been enough to fell Gavi. Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from 12 yards.

Raphinha doubled Barcelona's advantage within three minutes of the spot-kick. The Brazilian wandered into the yawning chasm which existed within Madrid's makeshift backline, thumping a powerful header beyond Courtois to make it 3-1.

The first-half epic stretched towards an hour as nine minutes of stoppage time were tacked on. With the last kick of the never-ending half, Madrid had a short corner intercepted by Yamal. The winger set his fellow goalscorer Raphinha away on a dizzying counter-attack which Alejandro Balde, bursting forward from left-back, ended with a drilled finish into the bottom corner.

Carlo Ancelotti tried to stem the bleeding with the half-time introduction of Dani Ceballos, yet the controlling Spaniard was helpless as Raphinha added a fifth for Barcelona within three minutes of the restart.

Just as Flick's side appeared to be cruising towards another Clasico mauling, their own flaws were exposed. Mbappe burst behind that infamously high backline and toed the ball away from Szczesny. Barcelona's back-up goalkeeper hacked the Frenchman down and was dismissed after a VAR review. Rodrygo picked out the top corner from the resulting free-kick, ensuring that Inaki Pena's first job as substitute goalkeeper was to retrieve the ball from his net.

The tempo of a contest which didn't so much ebb and flow as crash violently from one end of the pitch to the other belatedly began to slow in the final 20 minutes. Barcelona's ten men reluctantly dropped deeper, frustrating a Madrid side frazzled by a five-goal blitz on either side of half time.