RIYADH – Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti insisted his team are going to “fight flat out” to win the Spanish Super Cup, after they beat Valencia 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in Riyadh on Wednesday to reach the final.
The reigning Super Cup champions were below their best again amid a difficult start to 2023, but goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois excelled, making crucial saves and then decisively denying Jose Gaya in the shoot-out after extra time.
Real will go on to play Barcelona or Real Betis, who played on Thursday with the result unavailable at press time, in Sunday’s final.
“It was a tough and hard-fought match. There are no matches at this level that aren’t tough,” said Ancelotti.
“The opposition defended well and created problems for us on the counter-attack. We need to improve gradually, but we did a good job. We weren’t great at several points in the game, but we stayed in it.
“We wanted to reach the final. We’ll see what happens. We’re going to fight flat out to win the Super Cup.”
The Italian added that he felt that his team’s below-par performance was because of the Qatar World Cup.
“It has been a unique season with a World Cup in the middle,” he said.
“We had 14 players involved in the World Cup, so it’s normal that, around 20 days after it finished, we can’t be at a top level.”
La Liga champions Real, facing the Spanish Cup runners-up, had chances to win the game within 90 minutes but needed Courtois to make a stunning reflex save from Fran Perez in extra time.
Karim Benzema had sent Real ahead from the penalty spot but Gennaro Gattuso’s side levelled at the start of the second half through Samuel Lino.
Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili also made some excellent stops, including one from Vinicius Jr in stoppage time, forcing the additional period.
“Courtois is one of the best four or five goalkeepers in the world, (but) my goalkeeper made four or five very good saves,” said Gattuso.
“We didn’t have luck on our side, that’s football. You have to have luck and today we didn’t have it. We missed two penalties.”
The first was fired over by Eray Comert, who also gave away the penalty converted by Benzema, and the second parried by Courtois, who read Gaya’s intention to shoot down the middle.
“Obviously, as a goalkeeper, you have to study penalties,” Courtois told Movistar. “Gaya missed his last one against Sevilla on the left, and scored his last one down the middle against Betis, so we knew he was going to shoot there.”
The Spanish Super Cup was first held in Saudi Arabia in 2020 in the current “final four” format – and will remain in the country until at least 2029. AFP
