Real Madrid to face Barcelona in Spanish Super Club after beating Atletico

Real Madrid beat cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid in the Saudi-hosted Spanish Super Cup to set up Barcelona showdown.Published On 8 Jan 2026Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in a tight Spanish Super Cup semifinal in Saudi Arabia to set up a Clasico final clash against rivals Barcelona.Fede Valverde’s free-kick and a Rodrygo strike on Thursday helped Madrid claim a fifth consecutive victory across all competitions, with Alexander Sorloth pulling one back for Diego Simeone’s Atletico, who came up short in Jeddah.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4‘Symbol of pride’: DR Congo superfan Mboladinga leaves AFCON as a herolist 2 of 4Dominant Australia seal 4-1 Ashes cricket series triumph over Englandlist 3 of 4‘Insane season’: Sabalenka berates tennis chiefs over intense schedulinglist 4 of 4Bangladesh to ‘work with ICC’ on T20 World Cup security concerns in Indiaend of listAlonso was close to the sack after a run of inconsistent form towards the end of 2025, but his team have slowly found their footing.The Spanish coach led Madrid to a win over Barcelona in his first Clasico at the helm in October, before his team began to slump.With 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.Atletico beat their city rivals 5-2 when the teams met in September in a La Liga derby, but this was a far closer affair.Los Blancos took the lead after just two minutes when Valverde’s ferocious free-kick flew past Sorloth in a poorly positioned wall and rocketed past Jan Oblak.The 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.Valverde celebrated vehemently, slapping his own head, clearly delighted at netting his first goal of a difficult season to date.By taking the lead, Real Madrid earned the right to sit deeper and force Atletico to try and attack them to pull back level.