UEFA SUPER CUP
What happens if the Real Madrid - Atalanta Super Cup ends in a tie?
The winner of the UEFA Super Cup must be decided on the night, but a recent rule change means the format is now shorter.
Whatever happens in today’s UEFA Super Cup, which sees European champions Real Madrid take on Europa League holders Atalanta, it will not be a marathon affair.
Owing to a rule change made last year by European soccer’s governing body, in an apparent effort to limit the physical demands placed on players facing congested fixture schedules, there will be no extra time in Warsaw. If the scores remain level after normal time at the Stadion Narodowy, the 2024 Super Cup will go straight to a penalty shootout.
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Extra time a feature of recent Super Cups
Before 2023, the curtain-raiser to the European men’s club season had only been settled from the spot if teams could not be separated by an additional 30 minutes of play.
In the opening 25 years of the Super Cup, whose first official edition was held in the 1973/74 season, the extra half hour was seldom needed. This was, in no small part, because the trophy was chiefly contested over two legs during that initial period, offering greater room for the tie to be settled in regular time. The use of the away-goals rule also helped to avoid the possibility of more than 180 minutes of soccer.
When the event changed to a single-elimination format in 1998, however, extra time became much more frequent. Indeed, 10 out of 25 Super Cups went beyond normal time from 1998 to 2022, and seven out of nine were level after 90 minutes between 2013 and 2021.
How many Super Cups have been settled by penalties?
In the first Super Cup after UEFA’s decision to abolish extra time, Manchester City and Sevilla put the rule change into action straight away: the Premier League club were 5-4 winners on penalties in Athens 12 months, after a 1-1 draw in normal time.
Having never been needed in the two-legged Super Cup, that was the fourth time penalties had been used to decide the winner in single-game encounters.
The previous three had all involved Chelsea. In 2013, the Blues lost to Bayern Munich in the first Super Cup to be settled from 12 yards, before again succumbing in 2019, this time against Liverpool. The West Londoners then broke their penalty hoodoo in 2021, beating Villarreal 6-5 from the spot in Belfast.
How does a penalty shootout work?
In a shootout, both teams get five penalties each, with kicks taken alternately by each side. The team that scores the most penalties wins. If one side establishes an unassailable lead before one or both of the teams has taken all of its five penalties, the shootout ends.
If the sides remain level after five penalties each, they take additional rounds of single sudden-death spot-kicks until one scores and the other misses.
Real Madrid vs Atalanta: start time, how to watch
Real Madrid face Atalanta today, Wednesday August 14, with kick-off in Warsaw scheduled for 3 p.m. ET/12 noon PT. Viewers in the US will be able to watch the 2024 UEFA Super Cup on CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, ViX, TUDN USA and Univision.