Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona: Vinicius Junior fires hat-trick as Real win Spanish Supercopa

Real Madrid humiliated their arch-rivals Barcelona with a comprehensive 4-1 demolition of Xavi’s side in the Spanish Supercopa final, as Vinicius Junior hit a brutal first-half hat-trick against a hapless Catalan defence.

It marks Jude Bellingham’s first trophy in Madrid and he got the party started early with a sumptuous ball for Vinicius to chase after peeling off a crazy high Barcelona backline and easily rounding Inaki Pena to score.

Quite why Xavi set up such a high defensive line against the speedy front two of Vinicius and Rodrygo remains a mystery but the Brazilians took full advantage, sharing three more goals as Barcelona were totally outplayed.

Robert Lewandowski reduced the deficit to 2-1 with a superb volley from the edge of the area but the hope lasted just four minutes before Ronald Araujo, who was later sent off, brought Vinicius down in the area for a penalty that killed the game with five minutes left in the first half.

The only bright spark for Barcelona was Pedri’s long-awaited return from injury but they have the chance to bounce back as they remain in European, cup and league contention while Real Madrid received a La Liga boost without even playing as title rivals Girona dropped points earlier today.

Both sides are in Champions League round of 16 action in February but Barcelona will need to be better by several orders of magnitude if they’re to make any noise in that competition.

They were quite simply dismantled by Real Madrid with Araujo, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen and Alejandro Balde, attempting to play Rodrygo offside in his own half for the second goal that followed just four minutes after the opener.

Despite the nightmare start, Barcelona were able to get back into the game and were the superior team in the build-up to Lewandowski’s wondergoal, but that counted for little with Real Madrid looking close to scoring with every single attack.

This is the first of four trophies that Los Blancos will be aiming for this season and based on this performance they’ll be a threat on all fronts. With the likes of Luke Modric (who picked up his 30th career trophy), Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Diaz all on the bench, it felt like Carlo Ancelotti’s squad are only just getting started while Andriy Lunin performed admirably in place of the dropped Kepa.

The broadcast cutaways to Joan Laporta won’t ease Xavi’s nerves at all – the Barcelona president looked thunderous in the stands as he watched his side get picked apart by their biggest rivals in Saudi Arabia as they also trail Los Blancos by six points in the league.

But the score on the pitch only echoed the chasm that’s quickly broken open between the two sides – Barcelona still constrained economically and forced to trust in youth against their all-star rivals whose biggest names ran the show in Riyadh.

Real Madrid’s full-backs and midfielders provided just the service for a strikeforce that was ineffective in El Clasico earlier this La Liga season and then they did drop back and defend then Barcelona could barely fashion a single meaningful chance aside from a moment of magic from Lewandowski.

It wasn’t even that Real Madrid needed an all-conquering performance to humble their great foes so much. Rather they just punished the mistakes Barcelona handed to them in a clinical display more akin to swatting aside a Segunda Division side in the Copa del Rey than winning El Clasico.

Meanwhile, Barcelona had virtually lost the plot by the end of the game with Araujo’s red card one of several late challenges in the closing stages and it was a cruel symbol of Real Madrid’s dominance that the officials didn’t even bother with any injury time after the 90 minutes.

Who else? Vinicius ran Araujo ragged all game and the defender’s eventual red card looked to be borne more out of frustration than anything else.

He was ruthless in front of goal and just appeared to float away from the opposition defence before always making the right decision when there was a chance to pull the trigger.

But he also turned provider to give strike partner Rodrygo a deserved goal, jinking into the penalty area with no defenders able to get close before his teammate fired home. The rest of Europea hve been warned – give Vinicius space at your peril.

Real Madrid: Lunin 7, Carvajal 8, Rudiger 7, Nacho 6, Mendy 7, Valverde 7, Tchouameni 7, Kroos 6, Bellingham 7, Rodrygo 8, Vinicius Jr 9. Subs: Diaz, Modric, Camavinga, Joselu, Ceballos.

Barcelona: Pena 6, Araujo 2, Kounde 3, Christensen 4, Balde 5, Gundogan 6, De Jong 4, Pedri 7, Torres 7, Roberto 6, Lewandowski 7. Subs: Felix, Yamal, Lopez.

7’ – GOAL! REAL MADRID 1-0 BARCELONA (VINICIUS): Vinicius Junior got the goal but it was Jude Bellingham who was the real star, he received the ball from Tchouameni on the halfway line with three Barca players around him, but still manages to flick a low pass that completely splits the defence and allows the Brazilian to race clear. From there he easily rounds Pena and Real Madrid are ahead!

11’ – GOAL! REAL MADRID 2-0 BARCELONA (VINICIUS): Once again, one long low pass cleaves the Barcelona defence wide open! They’re playing a frankly suicidal high line and this time Carvajal put the perfect ball through for Rodrygo to easily pull away from the defenders and break into the box before squaring it across the area for the easiest of tap-ins. Barcelona are on the ropes.

33’ – GOAL! REAL MADRID 2-1 BARCELONA (LEWANDOWSKI): Barcelona had been playing around the penalty area without threatening with a direct ball and Balde’s cross was easily cleared by Ferland Mendy… but only as far as the Polish legend! He meets it on the edge of the box with a laser-guided out-swinging low volley that Lunin can’t track through the sea of legs, and although he still gets a fingertip to the ball it flashes into the net to halves the deficit!

37’ – PENALTY! Barcelona are furious but it’s a clear penalty to Real Madrid! Vinicius attempted to get on the end of a deep cross and Ronald Araujo made enough contact to send the Brazilian tumbling to the deck, will he take it with the chance at the hat-trick?

39’ – GOAL! REAL MADRID 3-1 BARCELONA (VINICIUS): He does, and that’s the hat-trick! VAR was never going to overturn the decision and after Lewandowski attempts to put off the Brazilian with some whispered words at the penalty spot, Vinicius emphatically swished the ball to Pena’s right with a pretty unstoppable kick.

64’ – GOAL! REAL MADRID 4-1 BARCELONA (RODRYGO): Rodrygo deserved that goal for his assist of Vinicius’ second earlier, and he took it well when the chance came. This time his strike partner was the one driving into the penalty area and though his shot-cross couldn’t beat Kounde, his feeble clearance attempt fell straight to Rodygo who fired home with an unstoppable shot.

71’ – BAD TO WORSE FOR BARCA: HE’S OFF! Ronald Araujo has been terrorised all evening but he’s headed for an early bath now with a frustrated hack at Vinicius. The Brazilian had got to a 50-50 ball just in front but Araujo followed through his attempted clearance anyway and caught the back of the hat-trick hero’s ankle for a blatant (second) yellow card. The predictable brawl then emerges but no more cards are dished out.

• Ancelotti’s pulled level with Zinedine Zidane on 11 trophies at the Bernabeu.
• Real Madrid more than avenged Barcelona’s 3-1 victory in the same game last season.