Atletico Defeat Barcelona To Set Up Spanish SuperCup Madrid Derby Final
Atletico Madrid brought the Spanish Super Cup alive with an extraordinary comeback 3-2 victory against Barcelona in a fiery and ill-tempered scenes Spanish Super Cup semi-final in Saudi Arabia.
This ought to be a gentle curtain raiser played between cup winners and league champions but the final will be contested by the two teams who neither won the cup nor the league last season.
Pushing and shoving from both sets of players ensued as the officials tried to calm things down with Lionel Messi and Joao Felix squaring up to each other and had to be pulled apart.
Koke’s clinical strike put Atletico ahead early in the second half.
Lionel Messi equalised with a driven finish and then Antoine Griezmann headed Barcelona into the lead.
Alvaro Morata converted a penalty to make it 2-2 before Correra ran through and grabbed the winner with a powerful strike that was too strong for Neto.
Victory means Atletico Madrid will face city rivals Real, who beat Valencia 3-1 on Wednesday, in the final on Sunday (18:00 GMT).
The tournament has a new format this season, with the top two from La Liga and the Copa del Rey finalists playing in a four-team competition rather than the two winners playing each other.
Real, despite finishing third in La Liga, qualified because Barcelona won the league and finished runner-ups in the cup.
By Gerald Dandah
