Real Sociedad 1-1 Barcelona (AET; 2-3 on pens): Barca win shootout to reach Spanish Super Cup final

Injured Lionel Messi watched from the touchline of Cordoba’s Nuevo El Arcangel stadium as Barcelona won their Spanish Super Cup semi-final against Real Sociedad on penalties.

With their captain and usual spot-kick taker missing with hamstring problems Ronald Koeman’s team won the shoot-out 3-2 to make it to Sunday’s final.

Marc Andre ter Stegen saved Real Sociedad’s first kick from Jon Bautista. Frenkie de Jong then missed the chance to put Barcelona ahead. Up stepped the usually infallible Mikel Oyarzabal but he missed his first ever penalty with Ter Stegen saving.

Ousmane Dembele was the first to score running up to strike with one foot and burying his kick with the other. And when Willian Jose hit the post and Miralem Pjanic scored Barcelona were almost in the final.

Mikel Merino scored but Antoine Griezmann just had to score and they were through but he skied his kick and Adnan Januzaj scored.

That meant it was B-team midfielder Riqui Puig who stepped up to take the last kick and he scored to put Barcelona in the final.

In normal time Barcelona had taken the lead on 38 minutes when Martin Braithwaite played Griezmann down the left and he crossed for De Jong to head past Remiro. It was a difficult header for the midfielder but leaning back he managed to guide the ball under the crossbar.

It was reward for just about shading the first half but the lead was gone five minutes after the restart. De Jong handled in the area and referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero pointed to the spot. 

After the wait for VAR to confirm the decision Oyarzabal stepped up and with his distinctive style, never so much as glancing down at the ball before striking it, he scored past Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The ball ending up in the back of the net as it has in all 16 of his previous spot-kicks for club and country.

De Jong almost scored within a minute. But he paused too long inside the Real Sociedad penalty area before shooting and when he finally did Andoni Gorosabel had got in front of him and De Jong went through the back of the defender’s heel and not the ball. For a moment Koeman thought the referee had pointed to the spot but a foul was awarded to Real Sociedad.

Dembele was next to go close but his shot went just wide. At the other end Alexander Isak won a free-kick when he was upended by Sergio Busquets on the edge of the area but wasted it firing into the wall. Pedri had a shot tipped over by Remiro as both teams tried to avoid extra-time.

When those 30 extra minutes came it was Real Sociedad who had the first chance with Joseba Zaldua cracking a shot destined for the top corner before Ter Stegen could push it over with the save of the match. Remiro then blocked Griezmann’s shot from close range after he had followed in his won free-kick. 

And substitute Adnan Januzaj ran half the length of the pitch but sent his shot wide of the far post. The former Manhcester United winger was determined to settle the semi-final and his free-kick came back off the post with Ter Stegen beaten.

But Ter Stegen was the hero of the shoot-out. ‘We deserved the win,’ said the German keeper. ‘We are happy but we can’t get carried away. We should be winning these games.’

Real Madrid play Athletic Bilbao in the final four’s second semi-final on Thursday with the winners meeting Barcelona on Sunday.