Thibaut Courtois starred as Real Madrid beat Valencia

• Real Madrid beat Valencia 4-3 on penalties.
• Real Madrid will face Barcelona or Real Betis in Sunday’s final.
• The defending Super Cup champions weren’t at their best.

Thibaut Courtois was the star player for Real Madrid, who helped Real advance to the Spanish Super Cup final on Wednesday by defeating Valencia 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in Riyadh.

Due to a challenging start to 2023, the defending Super Cup champions weren’t at their best, but Courtois shone, making crucial saves and then decisively stopping Jose Gaya in the shootout after extra time.

In the final on Sunday, Madrid will take on either Barcelona or Real Betis, both of which play on Thursday.

Spanish Cup runners-up Real Madrid, the La Liga champions, had opportunities to win the game within the first 90 minutes, but Courtois had to stop Fran Perez with an incredible reflex save to force extra time.

🎖️ 𝙈𝙑𝙋 🎖️@thibautcourtois | #SuperSupercopa pic.twitter.com/VJhthCq4S4

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— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) January 11, 2023

Madrid took the lead through Karim Benzema’s penalty, but Gennaro Gattuso’s side equalised early in the second half through Samuel Lino.

Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili also made some excellent saves, including one in stoppage time from Vinicius Junior, forcing the extra period.

“Courtois is one of the world’s top four or five goalkeepers, but my goalkeeper made four or five very good saves,” Gattuso said.

“That’s football; we didn’t have luck on our side. You need luck, and we didn’t have any today. We blew two penalties.”

The first was misfired by Eray Comert, who also conceded the penalty that Benzema converted, and parried by Courtois after spotting Gaya’s intention to shoot down in the middle.

“Obviously, you have to study penalties as a goalkeeper,” Courtois told Movistar.

“Gaya missed his last one against Sevilla on the left and scored his last one against Betis down the middle, so we knew he’d shoot there.”

Despite criticism over the hosts’ human rights record, the Spanish Super Cup was first held in Saudi Arabia in 2020 in the current “final four” format — and will remain in the country until at least 2029.

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