Barcelona are safely through to the final of the 2026 Spanish Super Cup thanks to a dominant 5-0 win over Athletic Club on Wednesday’s semi-final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Barça were in full control from
start to finish and sealed the victory thanks to a spectacular first half in which they scored four goals and destroyed a helpless Athletic side, and the Blaugrana cruised in the final period and added another goal to secure the win and advance to the title match, where they’ll face the winner of Thursday’s semi-final between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
Reactions & Observations
- The opening 45 minutes felt like watching Flick Ball at its very best: with Pedri and Frenkie de Jong providing the platform by dominating the midfield, Barça were absolutely sublime in the first half, with a direct and devastating attack that created big chances from start to finish and were brutally clinical in front of goal.
- The entire front four of Roony Bardghji, Fermín López, Raphinha and Ferran Torres were unplayable and could not be contained by a helpless Athletic defense, and all four found the net. Fermín’s amazing finish after a brilliant cross by Raphinha and an outrageous goal by the Brazilian with a fantastic strike into the roof of the net were the big highlights, while Unai Simón’s howler that led to Roony’s goal certainly will not help the Athletic keeper’s status as Spain’s number one.
- Barça only conceded one chance when the game was already over a 4-0 as Oihan Sancet hit the post, but that was the only highlight of a horrific performance from an Athletic side that quite frankly did not look like they wanted to be playing in this game.
- The game was well and truly done with the 4-0 at halftime, and it could have easily been five or six given the level of Barça’s performance and the quality of their chances. Seriously, that first half was amazing to watch.
- Barça’s dominance continued early in the second half, and Raphinha scored his second of the night after a scramble in the box to make it 5-0. Ernesto Valverde made all five substitutions to rest some of his main starters right after the goal, and Athletic were officially done for the night.
- Hansi Flick also took the chance to rest some main players at the hour mark as Balde, Raphinha and De Jong were replaced by Martín, Rashford and Bernal. Pedri and Roony were replaced by Rashford and Lamine Yamal with 20 minutes to go, and Barça looked for a comfortable finish to the game.
- But the Blaugrana relaxed a little too much with the game well and truly over and conceded a couple of chances, but Athletic weren’t able to capitalize and Unai Gómez had a very bad miss one-on-one with Joan Garcia in what was the best chance of the game for the Basques.
- The final whistle came to end a wonderful night for Barça, who were sensational in the first half and looked every bit like the best version of Flick Ball we’ve seen since the German took charge 18 months ago. Athletic were horrible on the night, it must be said, but Barça made them look bad with their dominance and are looking strong ahead of Sunday’s Final. Well done, boys!
