BarcelonaThe final of the Supercopa de España, a minor tournament that is played where the most money is paid, is a key thermometer of the seasons, an appointment that sets trends. Proof of this is that whoever wins it usually gets a definite boost in the fight for the League. In the last four editions, the winner in Saudi Arabia has then lifted the trophy in the domestic championship. And in the current one, which will again be decided in a classic between Barça and Real Madrid, it is the Blaugrana, leaders in the League thanks to a less brilliant (but much more solid) version of themselves, who appear in the final with the label of favorites (8 p.m., Movistar). With nine wins in a row after a worrying thrashing at Chelsea, Hansi Flick’s men are threatening to turn Xabi Alonso into another failed experiment on the bench, which in the last ten years has only been a safe place when occupied by Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti. The egos of the dressing room and the power of Florentino Pérez leave little room for action to the coaches, who if they want to survive Concha Espina must limit themselves to managing and lining up.
Quite different is the film of Barça’s successes, today in the hands of a sexagenarian with a desire to revel. After an excellent first season, Flick continues to combine an orthodox and daring footballing book with the charisma and waist to manage a group with a majority of youngsters. He keeps alive the illusions of Barcelonianism while making sure that his disciples do not go astray. He is able to improve the reliability of a team with a projection of one hundred points in the League while changing internal routines to avoid injuries and make sure that footballers with a tendency to chaos like Lamine Yamal do not forget to go to the gym. A separate chapter for the Matarón winger, who arrives at the second classic of the season with his cap on and his mouth shut. Nothing to do with this low profile with the noise he made before Madrid-Barça at the end of October, in which the white players celebrated the victory in their noses (2-1) after he warmed them up with some explosive statements. Flick has also been decisive for the Blaugrana 10 to be reunited with Vinícius and company with the less illuminated spotlights.
And it is that Lamine Yamal, who will arrive at the World Cup in June with the label of star, is experiencing a less stable season than last. After a summer of well-deserved celebration, he inherited the number of the Cracks and started the course with outstanding performances in the first official matches. Coinciding with the first national team stoppage, he began to have pubic problems which, incidentally, helped the footballer learn to respect training and rest guidelines. Half-throttle he came to the first classic of the season, from which he left scalded after having talked too much, but as the weeks went by he recovered the playful version of last year, although only in second-order scenarios. In the first-class matches (PSG, Madrid and Chelsea), on the other hand, Lamine Yamal has not shone with an intensity comparable to the displays in the four classics of the 24-25 season or in the European semi-final against Inter Milan. Who knows if silence and discretion will help Barça regain their iron fist against the most formidable rivals.
Lamine Yamal, a rugged and unstable start of 2026
With this pending subject, the young Barcelona prodigy, who has deleted almost all the posts on his Instagram, will regain the title this Sunday after a start to 2026 in which he was unable to do all the training. As a result of this instability, he was removed from the line-up in Wednesday’s semi-final against Athletic, in which he only had minutes of shooting with the scoreboard condemned thanks to the voracity of Raphinha, happily recovered for the cause. He arrives at the classic with nine goals and nine assists in the statistics, which confirms his potential and explains the monumental financial effort that Barça made to renew him. However, the team, which has become accustomed to winning battles on points this year, misses its off-script imbalance in moments of greatest demand. Perhaps the words of Flick, who in the preview of the final defined Kylian Mbappé as “the best striker of the moment”, serve for Lamine Yamal to awaken the beast inside. Keeping quiet and listening is sometimes better than talking and stalling. Especially when there is so much to gain on the horizon.
