Real Madrid dominated the opening exchanges in Wednesday’s Supercopa semi-final tie against Valencia, but without making the breakthrough.
Karim Benzema and Federico Valverde both fired efforts just wide, before Vinicius Junior was denied by Giorgi Mamardashvili in the Los Che goal. Valencia also came close to opening the scoring, but Edinson Cavani’s header was saved by Thibaut Courtois.
Los Blancos have finally broken the deadlock that their domination promised, although it has come from the penalty spot. A long ball over the top allowed Benzema to race through on goal, before he was taken out by defender Eray Comert.
The Real Madrid captain dusted himself off, and sent Mamardashvili the wrong way to give the reigning La Liga champions the lead.
📹 El @realmadrid se adelanta en la semifinal.
🐈 @benzema anota de penalti.
📢 ¡El King Fahd ruge!
🆚 @realmadrid – @valenciacf I 1-0 I 38'
📺 @MovistarFutbol#superSupercopa pic.twitter.com/lRyjADPI0N
— RFEF (@rfef) January 11, 2023
The winner of Wednesday’s match between the two sides will progress into Sunday’s final, also played in Riyadh. The other semi-final is between La Liga leaders Barcelona and last season’s Copa del Rey victors, Real Betis.
Modric havent put a foot right since he came on, people that doubt Carvajal should give their head a shake – look how match changed when he came on, Benzema is extremely hard to watch right now, it always feels like were one player less in attack since he goes so deep and if there is a defenseman that should be sitting at the moment its Rudiger, not Nacho.