Barcelona hammered rivals Real Madrid 5-2 in a wild Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to win the first trophy of coach Hansi Flick’s reign.

Kylian Mbappe put Madrid ahead but a dominant Barcelona hit five in response before their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off in the second half.

Barcelona hammered rivals Real Madrid 5-2 in a wild Spanish Super Cup Clasico final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to win the first trophy of the Hansi Flick era.

The electric Kylian Mbappe sent Madrid ahead but a dominant Barcelona hit five in response before their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off in the second half.

Madrid were hoping to avenge their 4-0 defeat by Barcelona in October’s La Liga Clasico but instead were left battered and bruised by their arch-rivals in Jeddah.

After Mbappe’s opener, Lamine Yamal levelled and Robert Lewandowski sent Barcelona ahead from the penalty spot, with Raphinha bagging a brace and Alejandro Balde also on target.

Rodrygo Goes pulled one back for Madrid with a free-kick but they could not capitalise further on their numerical advantage in a humiliating defeat for the European champions.

Both Flick and his opposite number Carlo Ancelotti opted to maintain the same line-ups they started with in the semi-finals.

Yamal issued Madrid an early warning with a curling effort from the right which forced Thibaut Courtois into a fine save.

The Belgian goalkeeper also produced a strong stop to keep a Raphinha header at bay after the Brazilian evaded Lucas Vazquez with ease.

Despite Barcelona’s opening salvo it was Real Madrid who took the lead in the fifth minute with Mbappe’s brilliant goal on the counter-attack.

The French forward, frustrated numerous times by the offside flag in the league defeat by the Catalans, broke loose on the halfway line after Vinicius won the ball back and, after bursting into the area, clipped past Szczesny.

It took a stunning individual goal from 17-year-old Yamal to level the scoreline, with the Spanish winger cutting in from the right before stroking home a low finish inside the near post in a similar style to former Barca great Lionel Messi, whom he is often compared to.

Inigo Martinez hobbled off injured and Flick sent on Ronald Araujo in his place, amidst heavy transfer speculation the Uruguayan defender wants to leave the club.

Brilliant Barca

Barcelona kept pushing and moved ahead through Lewandowski’s penalty after Eduardo Camavinga arrived late and carelessly clattered Gavi.

Raphinha soon added Barcelona’s third with a header from Jules Kounde’s cross from deep and they grabbed their fourth before half-time on the break.

Yamal and Raphinha combined and the latter slipped in Balde, who slotted past Courtois.

Barcelona continued in the same vein after the break and Raphinha netted the fifth with a neat dribble and finish after Marc Casado played him in.

The Catalans were reduced to 10 men when Mbappe sped in at the other end, rounding goalkeeper Szczesny, who brought him down outside the area and after a VAR review was dismissed.

Rodrygo, who earlier hit the post, rifled home the free-kick past Szczesny’s replacement Inaki Pena.

Mbappe brilliantly teed up Jude Bellingham but the England international was denied by a superb Kounde challenge in stoppage time.

The French forward also came close to scoring again himself on a fine individual display but Pena tipped away his effort.

Barcelona brought on midfielder Dani Olmo for his first appearance since he was registered to play for the club on a temporary basis, a controversial issue which overshadowed the semi-finals earlier in the week.

However their five-star display offered a host of other talking points as Barca won a record-extending 15th Spanish Super Cup.

AFP

Inter Milan moved to within one point of Serie A leaders Napoli on Sunday after bouncing back from a painful defeat in the Italian Super Cup final by winning 1-0 at struggling Venezia and going second in the table.

Matteo Darmian shot the injury-hit champions to victory on the Venetian Lagoon with the only goal of the game in the 16th minute, moving Inter a point above Atalanta who were held to a goalless draw at Udinese on Saturday.

Italy defender Darmian tapped home his second goal of the season on the rebound after Lautaro Martinez’s shot was kept out by Venezia goalkeeper and Inter loanee Filip Stankovic.

“We work on getting up the pitch and it doesn’t matter who gets there. I found myself in front of goal and thankfully I managed to score and help the team win,” said Darmian.

Napoli can extend their lead at the top of the division to four points with a home win over Verona, although Antonio Conte will be without Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who has asked to be sold, with an 80-million-euro ($82 million) transfer to Paris Saint-Germain reportedly in the works.

However Inter will have two games in hand, the first against Bologna on Wednesday and the other their December fixture at Fiorentina which was stopped, following Edoardo Bove’s collapse on the pitch, and has yet to be rescheduled.

Inter have had problems closing out matches this season and Sunday’s narrow win, their sixth on the bounce in Serie A, came after Simone Inzaghi’s side threw away a two-goal lead in the Italian Super Cup final against AC Milan.

The away side dominated and should have won by more despite having Italy defender Francesco Acerbi and key midfielders Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan out injured, with Marcus Thuram, Benjamin Pavard and Federico Dimarco starting on the bench.

But Stankovic, the son of Inter legend Dejan, was excellent between the sticks and his brilliant save from Davide Frattesi in the 67th minute almost paid off moments later when the post denied USA midfielder Gianluca Busio and allowed Inter to escape with all three points.

“It wasn’t easy after losing the final the way we did, but the boys were brilliant because we came here tired with a host of players out but we played really well,” said Inzaghi.

Genoa continued their revival under Patrick Vieira with their first home win of the season, 1-0 over relegation rivals Parma, in front of new majority shareholder Dan Sucu.

Morten Frendrup’s wildly deflected strike in the 65th minute gave Genoa their third win since France and Arsenal icon Vieira replaced Alberto Gilardino in November.

Genoa are up to 11th on 23 points, a point behind Roma who snatched a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Bologna thanks to a controversial Artem Dovbyk penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

Vieira’s team are also five points above the relegation zone after their first victory at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris since the final day of last season.

“We played well from the first minute to the last, everyone was waiting for this win for 233 days and we did it with a great performance,” said Vieira.

It was a propitious first appearance in front of home fans for Sucu who took over Genoa last month after he subscribed to a 45-million-euro capital increase which gave him 77 percent of the club.

That operation brought to an end the ownership of controversial investment company 777 Partners, who acquired 99.9 percent of Genoa in September 2021 but were issued with a winding up order by the United Kingdom’s High Court last year.

Sucu’s ownership is contested by another investment firm and 777 creditor, Advantage Capital (A-Cap), who say they were Genoa’s rightful owners after taking control of 777’s football assets.

A-Cap called the arrival of Sucu, who also owns Rapid Bucharest, a “non-approved clandestine operation” before Genoa said the takeover was final and that any news to the contrary was false.

Parma are a point and place above the bottom three and face three key clashes with fellow strugglers Venezia, Lecce and Cagliari in the next few weeks.

AFP

Altay Bayindir was Manchester United’s unlikely hero as the holders held out for over an hour a man down to knock Arsenal out the FA Cup on penalties after a feisty 1-1 draw at the Emirates on Sunday.

United’s stand-in goalkeeper saved a penalty from Martin Odegaard in normal time and then denied Kai Havertz in the shootout as the wasteful Gunners had another day to forget in front of goal.

Bruno Fernandes had fired the visitors into the lead early in the second half before Diogo Dalot was sent-off on the hour mark for a second bookable offence.

Gabriel Magalhaes quickly levelled for Arsenal, but they wasted a host of chances to win the tie in 90 minutes and were made to pay.

United were perfect from the spot as the much-criticised Josua Zirkzee stroked home the winning penalty in front of the jubilant travelling support.

Defeat is another hammer blow to Mikel Arteta’s attempts to end a five-year trophy drought for Arsenal, who also lost the first leg of their League Cup semi-final 2-0 to Newcastle on Tuesday.