Real Madrid’s Slovak defender David Hancko (left) fights for the ball with Atletico Madrid’s Norwegian forward Alexander Sorloth during the Spanish Supercup semi-final football match at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah on January 8, 2026. Picture: Fadel Senna/AFP Xabi Alonso’sReal MadridbeatAtletico Madrid2-1 in a tightSpanish Super Cupsemi-final in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to set up aClasicofinal clash against rivalsBarcelona. Fede Valverde’s blistering free-kick and a Rodrygo Goes strike helped Madrid claim a fifth consecutive victory across all competitions, with Alexander Sorloth pulling one back for Diego Simeone’s Atletico, who came up short in Jeddah.
Alonso was close to the sack after a run of inconsistent form towards the end of 2025 but his team have slowly found their footing in the shape of positive results, even if some performances have not been entirely convincing. The Spanish coach led Madrid to a win over Barcelona in his first Clasico at the helm in October, before his team began to slump. “After so many games without scoring, today was a great game to get back to it, to help the team win,” Valverde told Movistar after netting his first goal of the campaign.
“We have to keep being self-critical too, we had chances but they had more and played much better than us, we have to keep correcting that and improving.” “It’s a semi-final, having scored early gives you that advantage that you want to defend,” said the coach. “There were phases where we were defending but the objective was to go through to the final, and we’re happy to be playing that on Sunday.” With French superstar Kylian Mbappe out as he recovers from a knee sprain, Alonso kept young striker Gonzalo Garcia in the centre of the attack after his hat-trick against Real Betis on Sunday. Atletico beat their city rivals 5-2 when the teams met in September in a La Liga derby but this was a far closer affair.
