Since switching to a four-team format and moving to Saudi Arabia in 2020, the Spanish Super Cup has been won by Real Madrid on three occasions and the European and La Liga champions will get the opportunity to land a fourth title of the decade at the King Saud University Stadium on Sunday, in a repeat of last year’s final.
Madrid thrashed their bitter rivals Barcelona 4-1 last term to regain the crown from the Blaugrana and Hansi Flick’s side will be out for revenge as we have been served up an El Clasico in the final for a third straight Spanish Super Cup.
There was more of a gulf between the pair when they did battle last term and just five points separate them in La Liga this time around, but recent experience in finals could see Madrid prevail once again.
Real Madrid to lift the trophy - 4/5
Barcelona became the first side to achieve a sextuple in 2009 and they will be keen to remain the only Spanish team to do so. Bayern Munich matched their feat, ironically under Flick, in 2020.
Madrid went mightily close last season, missing out on only Copa del Rey glory, and they will be aiming to go one step further this time around.
Barca, of course, will have other ideas, but it is hard to envisage them putting those plans into practice given their recent dip in form. Although they roared into an early lead in La Liga, Flick’s side have won just one of their last seven league games, a run made worse by the fact that their rivals have been on a real tear of late.
Madrid are unbeaten in their last eight games in all competitions, winning seven and scoring a mammoth 26 goals in that run. Carlo Ancelotti seems to have finally found a way to get the best out of his immense attacking options and their star quality could make the difference in Jeddah.
A 4-0 rout of Madrid in the first El Clasico of the season will give Barcelona some hope of landing the trophy on Sunday but Los Blancos are in frightening form and their recent experience in finals - they won the Champions League just seven months ago - should be enough to see them over the line.
Jude Bellingham anytime goalscorer - 21/10
Vinicius Junior was the hero in last year’s Super Cup final, netting a stunning hat-trick to lead Madrid to a 4-1 victory over their bitter rivals. However, he has not been at his best in recent games - especially in the semi-final win over Mallorca - and it could be worth siding with a bigger-priced option in the goalscorer market instead.
Like the Brazilian, Kylian Mbappe is also odds-on to net but he can be wasteful and is not worth backing at that price, while Rodrygo is a player who makes appeal having netted four times in his last five games. However, there is an even better-value option to consider in the form of Jude Bellingham.
The England star has picked up where he left off following a stunning debut season with the Spanish giants and he is in a rich vein of form, having netted seven goals in his last nine appearances.
Bellingham has scored in each of his last two matches, netting the opener against Mallorca on Thursday, and it is hard to imagine a young midfield pairing of Marc Casado and Pedri having the nous or defensive discipline to keep tabs on the world-class Englishman.
Federico Valverde over 0.5 shots on target - 11/10
Following on from that last point, Barcelona’s defensively weak midfield pairing could offer opportunities for Federico Valverde to bomb forward from his deeper role with regularity.
The energetic Uruguayan needs no invitation to join an attack, as shown by his respectable La Liga goal tally of five this term, and he is fancied to test Wojciech Szczesny in the Barca net on Sunday.
Valverde has taken 12 shots across his last four appearances, with five of those efforts being on target, while he also forced the keeper to make a save in Madrid’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona in October.
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Real Madrid - 7/5
Draw - 29/10
Barcelona - 8/5
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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.