Real Madrid 1-2 Athletic Club: Spanish Super Cup result, summary and goals

First-half review

Phew! What a half that was.

From the first minute it was clear that Marcelino’s troops were going to try to make it an uncomfortable evening for the league champions, and they pressed all the way to Courtois’ six-yard area. But not erratically, it was well coordinated.

That said, after some early sparring, it was Los Blancos that started to dictate their Basque opponents.

The openings were coming for Zidane’s side, but his firing squad was, once again, shooting blanks. Modric, Asensio, Benzema and Hazard all got into decent postions but either didn’t connect, or made the wrong decision.

And Athletic took full advantage of it…

A loose ball from Lucas Vázquez was picked up by Vencedor and his pass forward, whether intentional or not, was latched onto by Raúl García and finished. Another error from the makeshift full-back, a clumsy foul, gave away the spot kick, and García made no mistake.

Frankly speaking, with Madrid’s scoring problems, this is now a big ask.