Barcelona qualifies for the Spanish Super Cup final and awaits Real Madrid

Barcelona advanced to the Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia after beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Barcelona's young midfielder Gavi scored the first goal in the 17th minute of the match, which was held at the Jewel Stadium in Jeddah.

Gavi set up the second goal scored by Lamine Yamal in the 52nd minute, confirming Barcelona's qualification to the final, awaiting the winner of the other semi-final match between Real Madrid and Real Mallorca on Thursday.

The final will be held next Sunday at the Jewel Stadium. Barcelona is the most decorated team in the Spanish Super Cup with 14 titles, the last of which was the season before last, followed by Real Madrid with 13 titles, the last of which was last season.

While Mallorca won the title once in 1998. As for Bilbao, it did not succeed in avenging its reputation against Barcelona, which defeated it 2-1 in the first round match of the Spanish League on August 24.

Barcelona played the match without the duo Dani Olmo and Pau Victor after their licenses to play had expired, but the Spanish Sports Council gave the Catalan team the green light a few hours before the start of the match to play them temporarily until the final ruling is issued on the appeal submitted by the club's management against the Spanish League and the local football federation. Barcelona was then able to play them after qualifying for the final.

The team of German coach Hansi Flick started the match strongly, and almost opened the scoring after four minutes with a “flying” shot by Brazilian player Rafinha, but it went over the crossbar (4).

Raphinha repeated the attempt from a free kick, shooting low, but Unai Simon was on hand to block it (10).

Barcelona's pressure resulted in breaking the partnership after a collective play that started from the defense line before reaching Alex Balde on the left side inside the penalty area, who passed it to Gavi, who advanced from behind, before shooting it between the legs of the Bilbao goalkeeper (17). This goal is Gavi's first since he suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in 2023.

Bilbao defender Benat Prados almost made a fatal mistake when he passed to Simon, but Rafinha pounced on it but his shot landed in the goalkeeper's arms (21).

Bilbao tested Barcelona's Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for the first time with a shot by Alex Berenguer that the former managed to block (34), before Iñaki Williams almost forced an equaliser with a "flying" shot that went very close to the goal (43).

Barcelona reassured their fans with the result when they doubled their lead at the beginning of the second half, and Gavi played a major role in creating the goal when he passed a wonderful ball to Jamal, putting him face to face with Simon, and the 17-year-old did not hesitate to put the ball in the net (52).

Szczesny remained a solid barrier against Bilbao's attempts when he stopped substitute Mikel Vesga's shot (64). The match witnessed moments of excitement in its final minutes after two goals for Bilbao were disallowed for offside by substitute Oscar de Marcos and Williams.

Source: Middle East