Flick hails Barça's 'unbelievable' 5-2 win vs Madrid

Hansi Flick said he was "really proud" of an "unbelievable" performance from his Barcelona team, after they fought back from a goal down to thrash Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Supercopa final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Barça were up against it when Kylian Mbappé put Madrid in front after just five minutes at the Al Jawhara Stadium, Jeddah, but turned the game around thanks to a brace from Raphinha and goals from Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Alejandro Balde.

"I'm really proud," Flick said in his post-match news conference. "Proud for the team, the staff, the club, the fans, everyone. Today was an unbelievable match. For the coaches, not so much! But for the fans it's really fantastic."

Flick's team began the season strongly and were leading LaLiga before a poor run of form in November and December saw them drop points in six of their last seven league games, with Flick's tactics questioned.

"We have to learn from every match, and today's match," Flick said, when asked what the Supercopa win meant for the rest of the campaign. "We can do things better, but we have a young team. We had some weeks where we didn't perform so good, and our situation in the league now is not nice. We speak about all these things in the dressing room, but for me it's important to focus on the next match."

"We know what we have to do on the pitch. "We believe in the boss and the boss believes in us," captain Raphinha said in his post-match news conference, after being named the final's MVP. "The important thing is we can fight for titles and win them."

Despite playing with 10 men for the last half hour after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was shown a red card, Barcelona's lead never looked under threat.

Szczesny started both games in the Supercopa, after regular keeper Iñaki Peña was dropped after arriving late for a team meeting.

"When Wojciech was sent off, for us it wasn't easy," Flick said. "Iñaki did fantastic, from zero to hero. But I'm very proud of how we defended, every situation, defending the goal as one team."

It's Barcelona's second Clásico victory of the season after they won 4-0 at Madrid in October.

"I don't want to look back," Flick said. "Today is a good day, we beat one of the best teams in the world, for the second time this season, it's unbelievable, we win a title here and we're very happy. Today is a day to be positive."