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Real Madrid organize a Spanish Super Cup final against Barcelona after an entertaining 2-1 victory over rivals Atletico Madrid in Saudi Arabia, with a superb free kick from Federico Valverde as the first goal.
Valverde opened the scoring in the second minute before Rodrygo scored Real’s second goal early in the second half before responding with a goal of his own.
Los Blancos will face another of their rivals, Barcelona, in the final on Sunday, also in Saudi Arabia, with the The Catalans beat Athletic Club 5-0 on Wednesday.
Stunning Valverde lights up derby
There was barely a minute on the clock when Valverde fired a free kick from distance to send shockwaves through the King Abdullah Sports City stadium.
Rodrygo should then probably set his side up after a quick break on the counter which saw him cut inside well before placing his shot too close to Jan Oblak in what was a bit of a let-up for the hosts.
But apart from those two openings, Atletico were in the lead for most of the first half and tested Thibaut Courtois with great effort as it went on, with Alex Baena seeing a shot saved.
Shortly after, Alexander Sorloth missed a huge chance to collect a Conor Gallagher cross, but he headed it wide.
The hosts then failed to find the net in a wild sequence that saw shots from Baena, Julian Alvarez and Marcos Llorente saved, blocked and then headed wide of the target.
Rodrygo and Sorloth on target
Real punished their rivals as soon as they returned from the locker room thanks to a brilliant touch from Rodrygo which allowed him to score on goal and the Brazilian made no mistake in the finish.
But moments later Atleti were back in the game when Guiliano Simeone played a lovely one-two with Llorente before picking out Sorloth with an excellent cross, the striker doing the rest to half the deficit.
Courtois then had to be on hand to prevent Sorloth’s equalizer when his powerful strike was tipped over to keep the hosts ahead.
Atletico piled on the pressure in the closing stages with a Llorente effort five minutes from time, just the wrong side of the post, just after substitute Antoine Grizemann had failed to find the net with a volley.
