Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona to set up Spanish Super Cup final clash with rivals Real Madrid
Barcelona 2-3 Atletico Madrid: Late goals helped Diego Simeone's side come from behind to book a place in Sunday's final
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Atletico Madrid pulled off a stunning turnaround to beat Barcelona 3-2 in an enthralling Spanish Super Cup tie in Saudi Arabia and book their place in the final of the revamped competition where they will face Real Madrid.
Argentine forward Angel Correa struck the decisive goal in the 86th minute to complete an unlikely late comeback for Atletico after Barca had dominated the second half and had two goals ruled out following VAR reviews.
Substitute Koke had put Atletico in front at the start of the second half but Lionel Messi levelled in the 51st minute. Messi soon put the ball in the net again but his second effort was ruled out for handball following a VAR review.
Former Atletico striker Griezmann did put Barca in front in the 65th while Gerard Pique thought he had extended their lead moments later but that goal was also ruled out after a VAR review, this time for a fractional offside against Arturo Vidal.
Atleti had spent most of the second half trying to stop waves of Barca attacks but got a lifeline when substitute Vitolo was tripped by goalkeeper Neto and striker Alvaro Morata equalised from the penalty spot in the 81st minute. Stand-in keeper Neto was also at fault for the winning goal, failing to properly block Correa's shot which bounced into the net to cap an incredible match. (Reuters)
Re-live the action in the blog below:
Hello, and welcome along to live coverage of Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid...
Team news
Barcelona XI: Neto; Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Jordi Alba; Busquets, Vidal, De Jong; Griezmann, Messi, Suárez
Subs: Pena, Lenglet, Seemed, Perez, Firpo, Rakitic, Fati.
Atlético Madrid XI: Oblak; Trippier, Felipe, Savić, Renan Lodi; Correa, Thomas, Herrera, Saúl; João Félix, Morata.
Subs: Adan, Arias, Hermoso, Koke, Llorente, Riquelme, Vitolo.
Team news
It seems that all four teams in this slightly strange competition are taking things seriously, even though just about nobody in Spain is.
Barcelona name the best team they can as they seek a place in Sunday's final against Real Madrid. Vidal replaces Rakitic as one of two changes from the starting XI that drew 2-2 with Espanol at the weekend, the other is Umtiti in for Lenglet. Marc-Andre ter Stegen remains absent with a knee injury.
Savic comes in for Gimenez as the only change in Atletico Madrid's ranks from the victory against Levante on Saturday.
Why Saudi Arabia?
It doesn't take the wildest of imaginations to work out why the Spanish football federation (RFEF) decided to revamp the tournament (usually the equivalent of the Community Shield) and form a four-team tournament in the Saudi desert.
Reports in Spain suggest that the RFEF signed a three-year deal worth around £34m to stage the competition in the country that is widely accused of 'sports washing'.
In a letter to the RFEF, Amnesty International raised concerns about Saudi Arabia's human rights violations, highlighting: "discrimination against women, freedom of speech restrictions. Extensive use of the death penalty and torture of prisoners”.
“We’re different to 10 years ago,” the Saudi sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki said. “I hope Spanish women buy tickets and enjoy the Supercopa.”
Real watching on
The winners of tonight's clash will face Real Madrid in Sunday's final. El Clasio or a Madrid derby, tasty.
Zinedine Zidane's eased to a 3-1 win against Valencia in last night's first semi-final. Kroos, Isco and Modric scoring before Parejo scored a late consolation goal from the spot.
Kieran Trippier: 'We're confident'
"We've got a big task in front of us tomorrow," said Trippier, who has played 20 times for Atletico this season following his summer switch from north London.
"We have to listen to the coach's tactics to try to earn the result we want.
"We know that Barcelona are a fantastic team, one of the best in the world. But we've got to think about ourselves. We've earned fantastic results recently, so we're confident."
Ernesto Valverde: We're treating this like a league game"
"Obviously we are playing against Atletico Madrid and we know there are no easy games against them, and especially teams of that quality.
"We need to be alert because anything can happen. It is a knockout game - the team who wins will go through to the final - so we are treating it like a league match.
"We will be looking for the victory and we know how Atletico play. We saw with the last league game that it was a tight game but we were able to win it."
Head-to-head
Barcelona were 1-0 winners in these side's only meeting of the season so far, Lionel Messi produced a stunning moment of brilliance late in the game after Atletico Madrid threw everything they had at the visiting side.
You have to go as far back as April 2016 for the last time that Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona. The scorer of the only two goals in that Champions League quarter-final second leg was Antoine Griezmann...
Barcelona support
Real Madrid were basically playing a home match last night such was the level of support in their favour, the crowd were even booing when Valencia had possession, and it's probably safe to suggest that Barcelona, and in particular Lionel Messi, is what everyone's come out to see.
It's fair to say that Ernesto Valverde hasn't exactly caught Supercopa-fever
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