Oddly enough, no team had won the trophy in back-to-back seasons for 15 years - Barcelona being the last to do so - and the runners-up in LaLiga in each of the three most recent seasons had won the Super Cup that year, so if the pattern continued, the 2026 edition was Los Blancos' to win.
Different paths to the final
A win against the Catalans in LaLiga earlier this season had seen Xabi Alonso's side snap their Clasico losing streak from 2024/25, when Barca won every match against them - a somewhat humiliating statistic for anyone of an all-white persuasion.
In the lead-up to this showpiece, Barca absolutely ripped apart an Athletic Club side that didn't know what had hit them in the semi-final. By half-time, the Basques were four down, and the game was already over. The fifth goal after the break was incidental.
It was a ninth successive win for Hansi Flick's men, and keeping a clean sheet in the last five of those games put Real's task in sharp focus before a ball had even been kicked on Sunday.
For their part, Madrid had a derby against Atleti to negotiate in the semis, and Fede Valverde's rocket of a free-kick to open the scoring deserved to win any match.
As it turned out, Real toiled to their eventual 2-1 win - a fifth competitive victory in a row - to set up the clash with the Blaugranes.
Real's superior Super Cup H2H record
Having won 10 of the previous 18 Super Cup head-to-head meetings (D2, L6), their motivation, other than beating their fiercest rivals and handing Alonso his first trophy as manager of the club, was that a win would bring them to within one of Barca's record-breaking 15 Spanish Super Cup titles.
Losing would only extend the Catalans' domination in the competition and bring them a 16th title - three more than Real and 13 more than the next nearest pursuers, Athletic Club and Deportivo La Coruna (both with three).
The match began at a ferocious pace with Barcelona making all the running in terms of possession, and Real testing the patience of both their opponents and the match referee with a series of fouls to set the tone.
Though genuine goalscoring chances were at a minimum, the match was still an absorbing watch, thanks to the tempo-setters Pedri and Frenkie de Jong for the Blaugranes, and the pace of Vini Jr for Los Blancos.
Raphinha opens the floodgates
It would be Real's Brazilian, looking for his first goal in 16 games, who would have the game's first shot on target, whilst Barca's metronomic Spaniard (94.3%) and the Dutchman (94.4%) continued to dominate against the likes of Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni.
The Catalans came more into the game in an attacking sense as half-time approached, with their front three of Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski all prominent.
Indeed, it was Barca's Brazilian who would spark a flurry of goals in the 36th minute, with a low drive across Thibaut Courtois for the opener.
The assist from Fermin Lopez was his fourth goal involvement in his last two Barcelona outings (G1, A3), whilst Raphinha's third goal in this season's competition after his two against Athletic in the semi, meant he was just one behind the Basque club's former striker, Aritz Aduriz, as the only player to score four in one edition of the competition.
Two more shots on target followed from Lamine and Fermin Lopez before Barca were hit by a sucker punch.
Stoppage time madness
Receiving the ball out wide during stoppage time, Vinicius decided to turn on the afterburners and left Jules Kounde for dead. As he wound his way into the area, there was no stopping him, and his finish was utterly glorious.
It would be one of 11 touches in the box and four shots on target from the player, both the most from anyone on the pitch during the game.
Within two minutes, Pedri's delightful pass found Lewandowski, and the Polish international lifted the ball over the advancing Courtois. It was typical of the type of finish that Lewy has perfected throughout his career, and meant a 10th game in a row that Barca had scored at least two goals.
Still the action hadn't finished, and after a Rodrygo corner caused confusion, Gonzalo Garcia somehow managed to equalise for the second time despite falling backwards as he took the shot.
Those two first-half strikes from the Catalans ensured that 11 of their 14 Super Cup goals under Flick - to that point in the game - had come before half-time. It was also the sixth game in Madrid's last seven where both teams had scored, indicating a defensive issue that Alonso needs to get to grips with.
Madrid's late push not enough to topple the Catalans
The pattern of the match continued after the break, and this time the official was standing for no nonsense as he brandished a flurry of yellow cards - including to Fede Valverde, who now has more bookings than goals against Real's eternal rivals.
His combative nature was always to the fore, and winning all five of his one-on-ones was an excellent return, particularly when set alongside the much more celebrated Bellingham, who contested a mammoth 16 duels himself but only won half of them.
The often-overlooked Rodrygo was also putting himself about, and his winning of possession on five separate occasions was the joint-best return from Real's players.
With just under 20 minutes to play and the match swinging from end-to-end, a slip by Raphinha, a deflection from Raul Asencio and Courtois already anticipating where the Brazilian's shot would land before the Spaniard's inadvertent touch saw Barca get their third.
It prompted Alonso to send on Kylian Mbappe, and whilst the Frenchman couldn't affect things up front for Madrid, he was involved in an exchange which saw de Jong sent off late on for a high boot.
Marcus Rashford's astonishing miss couldn't put the game to bed, and had either Asencio or Alvaro Carreras not put their injury time efforts straight into Joan Garcia's arms, we would've seen a penalty shoot-out to add to a thrilling 90+ minutes of football.
