Vinicius scores hat-trick, Real Madrid wins Spanish Super Cup

Goal

Real Madrid:Vinicius (7', 10', 39' pen), Rodrygo (64')
Barca:Lewandowski (33')

Red card

Barca:Araujo (71')

Real Madrid humiliated arch-rivals Barca with a comprehensive 4-1 demolition of Xavi's side in the Spanish Super Cup final, with Vinicius Junior scoring a first-half hat-trick against a poor Catalan defence.

The victory marked midfielder Jude Bellingham's first trophy in Madrid and the England star got the party started early with a perfect assist for Vinicius to open the scoring in the seventh minute after breaking through Barcelona's high defence and easily slotting past Inaki Pena to score.

Why coach Xavi set up such a high defensive line against the speedy Vinicius and Rodrygo remains a mystery, but the Brazilian took full advantage of it to his advantage. Three minutes after the opener, the Brazilian strikers found each other and Vinicius had another chance to finish and beat Pena for a second time.

Robert Lewandowski reduced the deficit to 1-2 with a superb volley from outside the box in the 33rd minute, but Barca's joy only lasted four minutes before Ronald Araujo, who was later sent off in the 71st minute, fouled Vinicius in the box. Vinicius himself stood at the 11m mark and converted the penalty to complete his hat-trick and restore Real Madrid's two-goal lead.

The only bright spot for Barcelona was the long-awaited return of young midfielder Pedri from injury and the Spaniard missed a good chance in the closing minutes of the first half.

In the second half, Barca was expected to play explosively, but did not create many situations threatening Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin's goal like in the first 45 minutes. The disjointed play between the lines made Barca even more disadvantaged than their opponents.

In the 64th minute, striker Rodrygo took advantage of a careless clearance by centre-back Jules Kounde when he tried to cut out Vinicius' cross and the Brazilian star's shot into the far corner beat Pena to put Real up 4-1. And the end for Barca came in the 71st minute when Araujo received a second yellow card and was sent off.

With the advantage of one more man and a 3-goal lead, Real Madrid played quite leisurely. While Barca tried very hard, they could only create a few finishing situations but could not get past goalkeeper Lunin. The 4-1 result was maintained and Los Blancos won the Spanish Super Cup, avenging the loss to Barca a year ago.

Line-up

Real Madrid:Lunin, Carvajal, Rudiger, Nacho, Mendy, Valverde (Ceballos 86'), Tchouameni, Kroos (Modrid 81'), Bellingham (Joselu 86'), Rodrygo (Brahim Díaz 77'), Vinicius (Camavinga 82').
Barca:Pena, Kounde, Araujo, Christensen, Balde, Pedri (Fermín López 61'), Sergi Roberto (Lamine Yamal 61'), Gundogan, De Jong, Ferran Torres (Félix 61'), Lewandowski.