Real Madrid star told to “learn how to win” after Spanish Super Cup controversy
Tempers frayed at the end of the semifinal against Mallorca, with Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and Pablo Maffeo among the players involved.
Real Madrid and Barcelona will meet in El Clásico in the final of the 2025 Spanish Super Cup after Carlo Ancelotti’s team defeated Mallorca 3-0 in Thursday’s semifinal, which ended in controversy with a number of players on either side getting involved in a heated altercation immediately after Los Blancos’ third goal in injury time.
As had been predicted beforehand, Mallorca’s Pablo Maffeo and Vinicius Jr, who have had a number of bad-tempered battles in the past, were among them. Jude Bellingham was accused of starting the melée by provoking Maffeo, whose teammate Samu Costa got involved, as did young Madrid defender Raúl Asencio.
Raul Asencio telling Maffeo he will meet him after the game. 😭😭😭
— TC (@totalcristiano) January 9, 2025
pic.twitter.com/vvs0MTiTij
Mallorca players unhappy with Asencio comments and kiss
And it was Asencio who was singled out for criticism by Mallorca captain Dani Rodríguez after the game. The 21-year-old’s shouting match with Maffeo was captured on camera, with lip readers suggesting he had told his opponent to “get out of here, you’re really bad”. Cutting words indeed…
Asencio was also seen blowing a kiss in Maffeo’s direction, which did little to endear himself to Rodríguez.
“At the end of the game, I think Asencio, I encourage him, considering how young he is and that he’ll play in many more big games in his career, to learn how to win. It’ll do him good. We just think what happened wasn’t right, that’s all”.
Speaking to the media after the game, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti called the incidents “unnecessary” and refused to point the blame at anyone, although he did reveal he had spoken to Maffeo in an effort to defuse the situation.
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