Barcelona beats Real Madrid again to win Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia clasico
Jeddah (AP): Raphinha scored twice as Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the final of the Spanish Super Cup played in Saudi Arabia.
Raphinha's 73rd-minute winner came in a fortuitous manner after he slipped while shooting and the shot deflected off Madrid defender Raúl Asencio to fool goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
The clasico final featured a hectic end to the first half when three stoppage-time goals were scored before the break, two by Real Madrid and one by Barcelona. Barcelona beat Madrid 5-2 in last year's final, when Raphinha also scored twice.
“We gave all we had,” Raphinha said. “I was emotional at the end of the match, we needed a win like this."
It was the 16th Super Cup title for Barcelona, more than any other club. Madrid is second with 13 titles.
Kylian Mbappé, who had missed the semifinals of the mini-Super Cup tournament because of a knee issue, entered the match in the 76th but couldn't do enough to help Madrid equalize. The France forward missed Madrid's win over Atletico Madrid in the semifinals on Thursday but then traveled from Spain to Saudi Arabia to be available for the final of the mini-tournament.
Robert Lewandowski also scored for Barcelona. Madrid's goals were scored by Vinícius Júnior and Gonzalo García.
The trophy was lifted by Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo, who had been out since November because of private reasons. Spanish media reports said he was on a mental health break.
The Catalan club opened the scoring in Jeddah on Sunday with Raphinha in a breakaway in the 36th. Madrid equalized with a superb goal from Vinícius two minutes into first-half added time, with the Brazil forward capping a nice run by splitting a couple of defenders before scoring from inside the area.
Vinícius hadn't scored in 16 matches with Madrid, since October.
Lewandowski put Barcelona back ahead two minutes after Vinícius' goal, and García evened the game again three minutes later at the end of the first half.
Madrid had two golden chances to equalize again in added time but couldn't capitalize on them.
“We have to turn the page as soon as possible,” Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said. "It's just one game, one competition, and it's the least important one we have. We have to look ahead, try to get everyone back together, recover our morale, and move on.”
Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong was sent off in second-half stoppage time.
Barcelona reached the Super Cup final by routing Athletic Bilbao 5-0, while Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1.
Barcelona is the first league champion in eight seasons to win the Super Cup, and the first team to retain the trophy since Pep Guardiola's team won three in a row in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
New venue for 2027
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The president of the Spanish soccer federation, Rafael Louzán, said Sunday that the final of next year's edition will be played either in Qatar or Kuwait because Saudi Arabia will be hosting the Asian Cup.
The final will return to Saudi Arabia in 2028 and will be played there until at least through 2030.
Spanish league results
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The teams not involved in the Spanish Super Cup played a regular round of La Liga matches as the domestic competition reached its midway point.
In Sunday's games, fifth-place Espanyol drew 1-1 at second-to-last Levante, while midtable Rayo Vallecano defeated Mallorca 2-1 at home.
Barcelona leads the league, sitting four points ahead of Madrid after 19 rounds.
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Padikkal's maiden double, Ravichandran ton propel Karnataka to 689/6
Lucknow (PTI): Skipper Devdutt Padikkal led from the front with a maiden double hundred in first-class cricket as a dominant Karnataka posted an imposing 689 for six, compounding Uttarakhand's misery in their Ranji Trophy semifinal here on Monday.
On another fruitful day for the Karnataka batters, Ravichandran Smaran too helped himself to a fluent century, scoring an unbeaten 121 off 191 balls with the help of 11 boundaries.
Padikkal made a monumental 232 off 330 balls, striking 29 fours and three sixes during his long vigil at the crease.
Resuming at their overnight total of 355 for two, Karnataka started the second's play from where it had left on first evening, with the duo of Padikkal and Karun Nair (60 off 105 balls) stitching together a partnership of 129 runs for the third wicket to continue their team's domination.
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Uttarakhand tasted the day's first success when medium pacer Abhay Negi dismissed Karun with a back of a length delivery that angled away, and the nick was taken by wicketkeeper Saurabh Rawat.
Padikkal, who began the day at 148 not out, continued to play confidently and reached his first-ever double century in 288 balls, with Smaran too looking good at the other end.
However, having added 59 runs with Smaran, Padikkal tried to work a turning Lakshya Raichandani delivery towards fine-leg but only ended up edging it to Rawat behind the stumps, bringing to an end his long stay in the middle amid a round of applause and acknowledgement.
Shreyas Gopal was on his way back for a duck after facing just six, bowled by Aditya Rawat as Uttarakhand seemed to have finally found an opening to get to the Karnataka lower-order at 485 for five.
However, after his captain's dismissal, Smaran found an able ally in wicketkeeper Kruthik Krishna, with whom the the 22-year-old explosive batter added 123 runs for the sixth wicket to further frustrate Uttarakhand.
Krishna's contribution in the stand was a handsome 60 off 103 balls, and his knock was laced with six fours and a six at the Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Off-spinner Avneesh Sudha broke the stand when the ball took a deflection off Krishna's bat to crash on to his stumps after the batter tries to defend it.
Uttarakhand's agony did not end there though, as seamer Vidyadhar Patil (35 batting off 103 balls) too chipped in with the bat, while adding 81 runs in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership with Smaran.
On the first day, India's Test and ODI specialist KL Rahul (141), in the company of Padikkal, set the tone for Karnataka with a magnificent hundred.
