Jeddah, Jan 9 (IANS) Federico Valverde and Rodrygo scored and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois made a series of fine saves as Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 to qualify for Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final against FC Barcelona.

Atletico dominated the game and had more than twice as many shots as Real, but was only able to beat Courtois once through Alexander Sorloth’s second-half header.

The game was only in its second minute when Jude Bellingham went down under pressure around 10 meters outside the Atletico penalty area, with the referee awarding Real Madrid a free kick, reports Xinhua.

Valverde hit the ball hard and flat and it was still rising as it hit the back of the Atletico net, leaving goalkeeper Jan Oblak helpless.

Real Madrid began the game by pressing high and stopping Atletico from moving the ball effectively, but as the half progressed Atletico created enough chances to have scored, only to be frustrated time and again by former Atletico keeper Courtois.

Sorloth had already headed over and Julian Alvarez fired wide, before Courtois was at full stretch to push away Alex Baena’s shot.

The goalkeeper then produced a stunning reflex save to tip over Sorloth’s header following a corner and after the Norwegian nodded over Conor Gallagher’s cross, Courtois was again at his best to deny Baena, with Gallagher hitting the rebound wide.

Atletico started the second half brightly, but it was Real which doubled its lead when Rodrygo latched onto Valverde’s through-ball and beat Oblak with a cool finish in the 55th minute. Sorloth finally got the ball in the net with a powerful header three minutes later to get Atletico back into the game.

Courtois pushed another effort from Sorloth wide, before Real Madrid was forced to change both central defenders with Antonio Rudiger and Raul Asencio replaced by Ferland Mendy and Fran Garcia.

Atletico continued to attack but once again Courtois denied Antoine Griezmann before Marcos Llorente and Alvarez sent efforts just wide.

–IANS

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