Barca goes back-to-back in Saudi

Raphinha scored twice as Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 on Sunday in the final of the Spanish Super Cup, being played in Saudi Arabia.

Raphinha's 73rd-minute winner — his second goal of the game — came in a fortuitous manner, after he slipped while shooting and the shot deflected off Madrid defender Raul Asencio to fool goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Robert Lewandowski also scored for Barcelona.

The clasico final featured a hectic end to the first half, when three stoppage-time goals were scored before the break, two by Real Madrid and one by Barcelona.

Barcelona beat Madrid 5-2 in last year's final, when Raphinha also scored twice.

"We gave all we had," Raphinha said. "I was emotional at the end of the match, we needed a win like this."

It was the 16th Super Cup title for the Catalan side, more than any other club. Madrid is second with 13 titles.

Kylian Mbappe, who had missed the semifinals of the mini-Super Cup tournament because of a knee issue, entered the match in the 76th minute, but couldn't do enough to help Madrid equalize. The France forward missed Madrid's win over Atletico Madrid in the semifinals on Thursday, but then traveled from Spain to Saudi Arabia to be available for the final of the tournament.

Madrid's goals were scored by Vinicius Junior and Gonzalo Garcia.

The trophy was lifted by Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo, who had been out since November for personal reasons. Spanish media reports said he was on a mental health break.

The Catalan club opened the scoring in Jeddah on Sunday with Raphinha in a 36th minute breakaway. Madrid equalized with a superb goal from Vinicius two minutes into first-half added time, with the Brazil forward capping a nice run by splitting a couple of defenders before scoring from inside the area.

Vinicius hadn't scored in 16 matches with Madrid, his last goal coming in October.

Lewandowski put Barcelona back ahead two minutes after Vinicius' goal, and Garcia evened the game again three minutes later at the end of the first half.

Madrid had two golden chances to equalize again in added time but couldn't capitalize on them.

"We have to turn the page as soon as possible," Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said. "It's just one game, one competition, and it's the least important one we have. We have to look ahead, try to get everyone back together, recover our morale, and move on."

Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong was sent off in second-half stoppage time.

Barcelona reached the Super Cup final by routing Athletic Bilbao 5-0, while Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1.

Barcelona is the first league champion in eight seasons to win the Super Cup, and the first team to retain the trophy since Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side won three in a row in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

New venue for 2027

The president of the Spanish soccer federation, Rafael Louzan, said Sunday that the final of next year's edition will be played either in Qatar or Kuwait, because Saudi Arabia will be hosting the Asian Cup.

The final will return to Saudi Arabia in 2028 and will be played there until at least 2030.

The teams not involved in the Spanish Super Cup played a regular round of La Liga matches as the domestic competition reached its midway point.

In Sunday's games, fifth-place Espanyol drew 1-1 at second-to-last Levante, while mid-table Rayo Vallecano defeated Mallorca 2-1 at home. Barcelona leads the league, sitting four points ahead of Madrid after 19 rounds.

Agencies via Xinhua