Xabi Alonso\u2019s Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in a tight Spanish Super Cup semi-final in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to set up a Clasico final clash against rivals Barcelona.
\nFede Valverde\u2019s blistering free-kick and a Rodrygo Goes strike helped Madrid claim a fifth consecutive victory across all competitions, with Alexander Sorloth pulling one back for Diego Simeone\u2019s Atletico, who came up short in Jeddah.
\nAlonso was close to the sack after a run of inconsistent form towards the end of 2025, but his team have slowly found their footing in the shape of positive results, even if some performances have not been entirely convincing.
\nThe Spanish coach led Madrid to a win over Barcelona in his first Clasico at the helm in October, before his team began to slump.
\nWith French superstar Kylian Mbappe out as he recovers from a knee sprain, Alonso kept young striker Gonzalo Garcia in the centre of the attack after his hat-trick against Real Betis on Sunday.
\nAtletico beat their city rivals 5-2 when the teams met in September in a La Liga derby but this was a far closer affair.
\nLos Blancos took the lead after just two minutes when Valverde\u2019s ferocious free-kick flew past Sorloth in a poorly-positioned wall and rocketed past Jan Oblak.
\nThe Norwegian Atletico forward might have done more to block it, and Oblak got his hand to the shot but could not keep it out because of the sheer power.
\nValverde celebrated vehemently, slapping his own head, clearly delighted at breaking his duck in a difficult season to date.
\nBy taking the lead, Real Madrid earned the right to sit deeper and force Atletico to try and attack them to pull back level.
\nMadrid hit the Rojiblancos when they could on the counter, with Oblak saving well from Rodrygo after he floated inside from the right.
\nAtletico began to create some chances and could have pulled level before the interval.
\nMadrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois tipped away Sorloth\u2019s header, and then the target man clumsily nodded Conor Gallagher\u2019s cross off-target from close range.
\nRodrygo extended Madrid\u2019s lead in the 55th minute with his third goal in five games, continuing a rich vein of form across the past few weeks after a run where he failed to score for 32 games straight.
\nThe Brazilian found a gap to burst through in the middle of Atletico\u2019s defence and kept his cool to sweep the ball past Oblak.
\nThree minutes later, Atletico hit back, with Sorloth finally finding the net with a header from Giuliano Simeone\u2019s cross.
\nThe striker gave defender Raul Asencio just enough of a shove to put him off without being penalised for it before nodding in.
\nThe Atletico coach goaded Madrid winger Vinicius Junior when he was substituted, with the Brazilian failing to score for a 16th consecutive game.
\nReal Madrid face Barcelona on Sunday in the final at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium after the Catalans thrashed Athletic Bilbao 5-0 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mbappe fit to play
\nReal Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said Thursday that superstar French striker Kylian Mbappe is fit to play in the Spanish Super Cup final against Barcelona after a knee sprain.
\nThe forward was left out of Madrid\u2019s travelling party to Saudi Arabia, with Los Blancos beating city rivals Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the semi-final on Thursday to set up a Clasico final on Sunday.
\n\u201c(Mbappe) is a lot better, he is feeling good, and he has the same chance of playing as his team-mates,\u201d Alonso told reporters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
\nXabi Alonso said Kylian Mbappe would fly to join the squad on Friday.
\nThe 27-year-old is Los Blancos\u2019 top goalscorer with 29 goals this season across all competitions in 24 appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xabi Alonso\u2019s Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in a tight Spanish Super Cup semi-final in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to set up a Clasico final clash against rivals Barcelona. Fede Valverde\u2019s blistering free-kick and a Rodrygo Goes strike helped Madrid claim a fifth consecutive victory across all competitions, with Alexander Sorloth pulling one back …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}