Barcelona is inferior without Neymar

The ref blows for what everyone assumes is an early full-time – both teams would welcome that, for different reasons – but it’s for a foul. That gives Mascherano enough time to get booked for a nasty lunging tackle. A minute later, the game is done and the Super Cup is theirs.

90 min: We’ll have three minutes of added time. Barcelona look less than thrilled. Suarez feels his leg again. Let’s hope they don’t lose Neymar and Suarez (although if there’s one man who can play up front on his own.

88 min: Good news: Suarez is no longer injured. Bad news: he just got booked.

85 min: More good news for Barcelona, Suarez pulls up with what looks like a strain. He stays on the pitch for now though – Barca have used all their subs.

83 min: Deulofeu runs at Sergio Ramos and panics him very slightly. It’s enough to win a corner. A corner that Barcelona waste.

80 min: Real trot up and win a corner. To celebrate they take off Kroos for Ceballos.

76 min: Barcelona have dominated the last 10 minutes: but Real Madrid have let them dominate, happy to rest up on their comfy four-goal cushion. Suarez goes down in a heap. It’s safe to say the Real Madrid fans are not sympathetic. Alba comes off for Digne.

 

Luis Suarez is thwarted by Real Madrid’s keeper Keylor Navas. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

73 min: Mascherano clips Benzema on the heel and the Frenchman hobbles around for a bit. He should be OK to continue though. Messi then sends the ball over the bar. Theo comes on for Asensio.

70 min: Suarez hits the post! Messi’s shot from distance is saved by Navas, and the ball rebounds to an unmarked Suarez, whose header smacks the foot of the post. “I’m guessing Paul Fitzgerald (48 minutes) didn’t watch much of last season,” writes Lee Purchase. “Ronaldo scored 10 goals in the quarters, semis and final of the Champions League; against such teams you won’t always have it as easy as this and he’s the ultimate big-game player (and averages over a goal-a-game). Laughable how people say Ronaldo makes Madrid worse, no matter how slick they look tonight.”

68 min: Real are Barcelona-ing Barcelona at the moment, keeping possession as their rivals chase the ball.

 Real Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez tussles with Barcelona’s Jordi Alba. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

65 min: Alba slides a ball across goal but Sergio Roberto is a metre or so from connecting and pulling one back for Barcelona. Real have reduced their intensity a little.

62 min: Casemiro comes on for Kovacic.

60 min: The sub Semedo’s cross is met by a glancing header from Suarez but he can’t direct it past the excellent Navas. Semedo is busy at the other end of the pitch a minute later, scrambling the ball clear.

58 min: A replay off Benzema’s shot earlier shows Ter Stegen didn’t know much about his save: it ricocheted off his shoulder. Messi has come into the game a little more in the last 10 minutes.

 

Lionel Messi attempts to go past Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

55 min: I missed a sub earlier: Pique came off for Semedo. Looks like he had an injury. Back on the pitch Benzema thrashes a shot that Ter Stegen gets in the way of.

52 min: Benzema gallops forward but is stopped by Mascherano. Barcelona aren’t really looking like they’re scoring four goals anytime soo… and Messi hits the bar. He wanders into the box and thrashes the ball on to the underside of the bar but it bounces out to safety. That sums up Barcelona’s night so far.

 Lionel Messi’s shot beats Navas but not the woodwork. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

48 min: Suarez is in the box and pulls the back across goal. Navas is excellent again too get to the ball and smother it. “Spare a thought for the fallen,” says Paul Fitzgerald. “Poor Ronny must be wondering what many Real fans have suspected in the last year or two; that this team not only probably don’t need him but that they might also be better without him.”

46 min: Barcelona come out in their revolutionary 4-0-2 formation. They had one (1) shot on goal in the first half. Maybe they can make manage two in the next 45 minutes. Who knows? Joseph Lam does raise a very good point: Real were excellent rather than Barcelona being abject in the first 45 minutes. You shudder to think what they’d do to Arsenal or Liverpool’s defence.

Half-time: The ref takes pity on Barcelona and whistles exactly on 45 minutes. Lionel Messi does not look happy.

43 min: I’ve counted at least three examples of showboating so far from Real that would count as excessive against a pub team. They’re out to humiliate their opponents as well as beat them.

41 min: Here’s Peter Van: “In response to Jo Ashdown (27 min): yes, it is too early to talk about firing Valverde. Two games, come on! But Jo is on to something. This IS the most dreadful Barca team I can remember. Instead of blaming Valverde, I’d blame whoever is in charge of hiring their scouting. Why have Madrid discovered brilliant players such as Vasquez or Asensio while Barcelona can only come up with Andre Gomes/Umtiti mediocrities?”

GOAL! Real Madrid 2-0 Barcelona (Benzema 38 min)

Yep, that was coming. Barcelona have been powerless to stop Real going forward. Marcelo crosses and Benzema peels away from Umtiti. The Frenchman then crashes a shot into the corner. This could get ugly for Barca. Or should I say uglier.

36 min: Modric spins round and fires off a pass mainly because he can. Having said that, it goes straight to a Barcelona player. But Real have won this, so why not humiliate your opponents while you can?

33 min: Vazquez again! He’s free in the area and curls his shot past Ter Stegen but it smacks off the post and to safety.

31 min: A lovely first touch from Vazquez to control a long pass from Marcelo and he bears down on goal like a slightly less good Gareth Bale. He finds Kroos but the shot is awful. A few seconds later Vazquez is at it again, forcing a corner with a tricky cross that Benzema just fails to connect with.

27 min: The knives are out for Valverde already. Here’s Jo Ashdown:

“Is it too early to call for Ernesto Valverde’s resignation? True, he inherited a decaying team, got no real reinforcements and lost arguably his best player. But you have to go back to the pre-Guardiola era to see such a listless, aimless Barcelona. I’d say these supercup performances are even worse than those tonkings at PSG and Juventus last season. Am I being too unfair to suggest Sr Valverde is in over his head”

24 min: Asensio has another chance to score after Benzema holds up the ball well. But his shot is deflected out for a corner. Which ends a pretty good run:

21 min: Real surge forward and Marcelo sends a cross-shot across goal that beats Ter Stegen. There’s no one to tap it home, but it almost goes in anyway, just missing the far post.

19 min: Real Madrid are sickening: not only are they brilliant going forward, Navas has also been great in goal. No great saves yet but he’s been out quickly to snuff out any chances created by Barcelona.

17 min: Of course, no sooner do I say Messi has been quiet than he slaloms his way past a few players and nearly scores. It takes a quick reaction from Navas to stop him: the keeper rushes out and gets the ball away.

 

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is thwarted by Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas. Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

15 min: Barcelona are getting back into this game – in that they’re not all pressed back on their own goalline anymore – Gomes chests the ball down and starts to spin round to shoot. But the whistle goes for handball. Messi has been very quiet.

12 min: Marcelo indulges in some ridiculous trickery down the left but his cross fails to find a team-mate. Then at the other end, Suarez slides the ball back across goal – an empty goal too after Navas rushed out – but there’s no support.

9 min: Real continue to press. The positives for Barcelona are that they have plenty of time to come back and … that’s it. They do have an attack of sorts but it peters out without a shot on target.

 An aerial battle between Barcelona’s Andre Gomes, right, and Real Madrid’s Luka Modric. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

7 min: Maybe PSG should have bought Asensio instead of Neymar: he would have been a lot cheaper. If Real go on to win this game with ease, it will leave Barcelona feeling pretty flat going into a new season without You Know Who.

GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Barcelona (Asensio, 4min)

It’s all Real early on. Benzema scampers out to the wing to deliver a cross, which is blocked. It’s Real who look like the team chasing the lead so far. And there they go! It’s a fantastic strike from Asensio, whose dipping, curling shot from distance gives Ter Stegen no chance.

 

Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio lets fly from 35+ yards out and the ball zips into the net to give the home side the lead. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

 

The Bernabeu erupts as Marco Asensio and his team-mates celebrate. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

 Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane looks pretty pleased. Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

 

Whilst Lionel Messi and his Barcelona team-mates look bewildered. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters

3 min: Barcelona only have to score three goals tonight to win. And, of course, that opens them up to Real counter-attacks: and Madrid have one early on. Modric picks up a cross but his shot is deflected to safety for Barca.

1 min: And we’re off. Barcelona get us started in front of a full-house of 78,000. “Like Trump, did Ronaldo also claim that both sides were to blame for his shove on the referee?” asks Peter Oh. They do have similarities: the weird tan, the magnificently rippled torso, the attention to their hair, the weird obsession with a rival for power. Ronaldo is way less likely to cause a nuclear war, mind.

We have some warm-ups. Gareth Bale, by the way, starts the game on the bench. Asensio and Vazquez will be your Madrid wide men this evening.