Real Madrid will play Mallorca in the second semi-final of the Spanish Super Cup on Thursday night at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah. The victor of this game advances to the December 12 grand final, where they will play either Barcelona or Athletic Bilbao.
After defeating Barcelona 4-1 the previous season to win the Super Cup for the 13th time, Real Madrid will begin their quest to retain their title in this encounter.
Los Blancos defeated Deportivo Minera 5-0 in the Copa del Rey on Monday, their fourth straight win across all competitions, to make a strong comeback from the December break.
Since the beginning of December, the La Liga champions have also been playing well in front of goal, adding two additional goals in each of their previous five games in all competitions.
In the meantime, Mallorca's comeback to domestic competition did not go as expected; on January 3, they lost to lower division Pontevedra against all odds.
However, in terms of the league, Los Piratas are having a strong season. They are now sixth in the La Liga standings, tied with fifth-place Villareal on 30 points, and six points behind the top four.
Mallorca has actually only participated in the Spanish Super Cup twice before, winning the trophy in 1998 after defeating Barcelona 3-1 over two legs and losing to Real Madrid 4-2 on aggregate in 2003.
Even though they will be more than happy to be in sixth place in Jagoba Arrasate's first season as manager, they will enter the 2024–25 season as the team with the lowest league ranking.
However, after watching his team lose 3-0 to fourth-tier Pontevedra in Friday's Copa del Rey match, Arrasate will not be able to duplicate last season's incredible cup run under Javier Aguirre, even though he may have Mallorca contending for European qualification.
Los Piratas have now dropped three of their previous five competitive games, which might not give them much confidence before their crucial matchup with Real Madrid.
The fact that Mallorca held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw in their most recent meeting at Son Moix on the first weekend of the season, however, should give them some confidence.
A recurrence of that outcome would force extra time and possibly penalties in Thursday's match, but Mallorca will be hoping to surprise Real Madrid in the ninety minutes and win for the first time since defeating them 1-0 in February 2023.
Real Madrid have already triumphed in one competition in the 2024-25 season and triumphed 3-0 over Pachuca in December, to win the FIFA Inter-Continental cup in Qatar.
Subsequent to that triumph, Los Blancos achieved a 4-2 beating of Sevilla in the final match of the group stage in 2024, and the Santiago Bernabeu crowd celebrated a stunning 2-1 win over Valencia last Friday.
Real Madrid fought back to level at Mestalla and finish with 10 men on the pitch after Vinicius Junior was sent off, thanks to a Luka Modric equaliser and a stoppage time winning goal by Jude Bellingham, who earlier missed a penalty.
That win placed Carlo Ancelotti’s side as the early leaders in the league, with a five point advantage over third placed Barcelona and a two point lead over second placed Atletico Madrid who have played one game less .
They had another productive outing in the Copa Del Rey on Monday against the fourth-tier Deportivo Minera, where Guler scored two goals, as well as Valverde, Camavinga and Modric to win 5-0 to qualify for the last 16 and remain undefeated in the seven games played in all competitions (D1).
Los Blancos will now turn their attention to the Spanish Super Cup, with Real Madrid will aiming to lift the prize they secured in the previous campaign having beaten their rival Barclelona with a 4-1 scoreline.
They will definitely feel that they have moved up from each of their last three Spanish Super Cup semi-finals considering that the 2021-2022 season when the lost 2-1 to Athletic Club.
Mallorca are set to join the Super Cup competition for the first time after qualifying through to the Copa del Rey final last season where they lost 1-0 to Athletic Bilbao in the shootout.