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60 min Valverde stretches to hit a shot that takes a deflection and the jumper Trapp saves comfortably.
58 min: Two changes for Frankfurt Mario Gotze, the same, and Randal Kolo Muani replace Sebastian Rode and Jesper Lindstrom.
Updated at 9.17pm BST
57 min Frankfurt have had more of the ball since the half. Lindstrom gets away from Casemiro and tries to play a one-two with Rode on the edge of the area; Militao in to clear.
55 min Mendy’s cross from the left reaches Vinicius, whose shot goes wide, possibly in front of Benzema, and Trapp saves it with his legs.
Updated at 9.18pm BST
53 min Rode’s imaginative pass is poorly controlled by Lindstrom, who was offside anyway.
51 min Casemiro makes a couple of big challenges on Lindstrom in the space of five seconds.
48 min Toure advances from behind and tries to find Borre in the box. Militao gets between him and the ball and knocks it out of play.
46 min Peep Peep! Madrid start the second half with no changes on either side. There are some new signings among the substitutes, such as Antonio Rudiger, Aurelien Tchouameni and Mario Gotze.
Reading in the middle of the day
Middle: Real Madrid 1-0 Eintracht Frankfurt
peep peep! End of a pleasant first half in Helsinki. Madrid went ahead thanks to a tap-in from David Alaba in the 37th minute, and the scoreline seems correct. Frankfurt started brightly, with Kamada squandering an excellent chance, but Madrid dominated as the half progressed. See you soon for the second part.
43 min Here’s Alaba’s goal.
42 min Benzema has a shot blocked, then Casemiro’s long follow-up is saved by Trapp. Madrid look set to put it to bed before half-time.
41 min: Benzema misses a great opportunity! It should be 2-0 in Madrid. The chance came when Kroos, on the right, flicked a lovely back pass towards Benzema on the edge of the box. He took it very well with his stride only to punch it wide of the far post.
Close but no cigar for Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. Photo: Sergei Grits/APReal Madrid Karim Benzema (left) reacts after missing a goal-scoring opportunity. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP
Updated at 20.54 BST
40 min It was a slightly soft goal for Frankfurt, but it is what it is.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Eintracht Frankfurt (Alaba 37)
David Alaba gives Real the advantage from the corner! Kross dragged it towards the penalty spot, as Benzema won the ball in the air and looped it back to Casemiro near the byline at the far post. He headed it back across goal, taking Trapp out of the game in the process, and Alaba struck it into the empty net from a few yards.
David Alaba of Real Madrid opens the scoring. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Updated at 20.50 BST
37 min: Good save by Trapp! Vinicius plays a classic between Benzema, then cuts infield from the left and curls a low shot into the far corner. Trapp ducks low to his left to tip his fingers behind it. It’s an excellent stop.
35 min Madrid are playing their usual slow-slow-fast style, with lots of harmless passing and then a sudden push. Frankfurt have defended quite well so far.
32 min It’s a decent enough game by Super Cup standards, but it still hasn’t changed the world. Frankfurt look sharp on the counter, and Karim Benzema looks sharp and to the point.
Karim Benzema – Real Madrid (official video) Photo: Petteri Palasma/EPA
Updated at 20.37 BST
28 min Lens goes down again after an aerial challenge with Carvajal. This time it fell awkwardly, but it looks good.
26 min Percentage of possession: Real Madrid 59-41 Eintracht Frankfurt.
24 min Knauff’s cross is pushed to his right by Courtois, a decent if essentially simple save. Just before that, Militao made an important interception on a cross from Lindstrom after a fantastic counter-attack.
23 min Here’s Tuta’s goal-line clearance.
19 min After a forgettable start, it’s warming up nicely.
Updated at 8.20pm BST
17 min: Off the line for Tuta! What a great defense. Madrid opened Frankfurt with a fantastic move, started by Valverde from the right. He directed a sharp square pass to Benzema, who elegantly slotted Vinicius to his left. Vinicius slipped a confident low shot past Trapp that was denied by Tuta in the six-yard box.
15 min Vinicius beats Knauff with aplomb down the left, but his cut is clear.
14 min: Good save by Courtois! This was the real quiz. Mendy was robbed by Knauff, who gave the ball up the field to Borre. He flicked an angled ball towards Kamada, whose left-footed shot was saved to his left by Courtois. Kamada is right-footed, and it showed – it wasn’t the most convincing effort, although Courtois still did quite well.
Daichi Kamada of Eintracht Frankfurt shoots at goal. Photographer: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Updated at 20.37 BST
12 min Lindstrom is denied by the diving Courtois, although everyone suspected he was offside and the flag went up as soon as the ball made contact with Courtois’ gloves.
Updated at 20.14 BST
10 min Carvajal collides with Lens’s face with his shoulder, who briefly visits the canvas. I think it was clumsy rather than deliberate, but it looked painful. Many players would have done more of this than Lens.
8 min Still no offsides, semi-automated or otherwise. But we do have the first corner, won by Valverde on the Madrid right. Kroos hits it and Rode heads it over.
6 min “At the risk of stating the obvious,” says Peter Oh, “whoever has a better Finnish will probably be happier when the night is over.”
5 min Madrid continue to dominate the ball, but at the moment it is all in the middle third. It’s been a slow start.
3 min Plenty of early possession for Real, although they’ve got the square root of a bit of a squat with it.
2 min By the way, Uefa has confirmed that it will be played over the tannoy whenever there is a semi-automated offside.
1 min Peep Peep! Eintracht Frankfurt start from right to left as we watch. They are black; Madrid wear white.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s Daichi Kamada takes the show on the road. Photograph: Joosep Martinson/UEFA/Getty Images
Updated at 8.24pm BST
Players with a yellow card:
Here come the players. The captains, Karim Benzema and Sebastian Rode, each carry the trophies they won last season. In a couple of hours, one of them will celebrate the Super Cup and all.
Updated at 19.58 BST
“I was on the UCLA campus recently in Los Angeles when the Real Madrid team turned up with golf cards to be transported to some training sessions,” says Liverpool fan Ian Copestake. “It completely ruined my morning.”
Did they bring their golf cards?
“Hey Rob!” writes Martin Segerstråle. “As a native, I must say that it is a joy to have a game of this magnitude (!) (?) in Helsinki. The traffic is a disaster and there are people everywhere. Beautiful! The renovated Olympic Stadium is a worthy venue for these games nowadays, so it’s good that Uefa is taking notice. Here’s to an exciting (boring 5-0) game!”
The stadium looks spectacular. I wonder how the mood compares to the night Bon Jovi and Babylon Zoo played there in 1996. (I’m not making this up).
Fans cheer inside the stadium before kick-off. Photograph: Joosep Martinson/UEFA/Getty Images
Updated at 8.20pm BST
“Why do we hope that VAR does not fall into a farce?” says Espen B. “I hate VAR in general, but I can’t deny that horrible VAR decisions are fun as long as you don’t have any emotional connection to the teams involved. If this automated offside thing gets completely out of control and there’s a lot of potential, you can’t deny that it will increase the entertainment value of a game that’s frankly hard to get excited about?
Oh, I agree with every word you say, it’s just that my therapist has encouraged me to suppress my inner Costanza.
It was 62 years ago in May
“Hey Rob!” says Joe Pearson. “And if Roma were invited, to make it a kind of Super Duper Cup? Let Madrid’s starting eleven face a 15-man squad made up of the best from Frankfurt and Rome. And let Glasner and Mou s “take it to see who is in charge of this abomination. Even though Glasner is 11 years younger, I think Jose fights dirty so my money would be on the Portuguese. And you wonder why Uefa haven’t targeted me as a consultant. Honestly!”
I am only publishing this email to help you claim your intellectual property in 2031.
Real Madrid begin their La Liga defense at Almeria on Sunday. Eintracht Frankfurt’s Bundesliga campaign got off to an imperfect start last Friday as they were held to a 6-1 draw by Bayern Munich.
The Fiver’s big match preview
Updated at 18.58 BST
Team news
Carlo Ancelotti, the old romantic, picks the same Real Madrid XI that beat Liverpool in the Champions League final. Oliver Glasner makes one forced change to the Eintracht Frankfurt side that won the Europa League final: Christopher Lenz replaces the brilliant Filip Kostic, who is leaving for Juventus, at left-back.
Real Madrid (4-3-3) Courtois; Carvajal, Eder Militao, Álaba, Mendy; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius Junior. Substitutes: Lunin, Vallejo, Nacho, Hazard, Asensio, Lucas Vazquez, Tchouameni, Ceballos, Rodrygo, Rudiger, Mariano Diaz, Camavinga.
Eintracht Frankfurt (3-4-2-1) Trapp; Night, Toure, N’Dicka; Knauff, Sow, Road, Lenz; Lindstram, Comrade; Borre.Substitutes: Grahl, Ramaj, Smolcic, Jakic, Coleman, Alidou, Hasebe, Alario, Chandler, Hauge, Gotze.
Referee Michael Oliver (England)
Updated at 18.58 BST
preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt in Helsinki. This match is the symbolic start of the European season, although it has been happening since La Fiorita lost 2-1 to Inter Club d’Escaldes in the semi-finals of the preliminary phase of the Champions League on 21 of June It is also a celebration of the past, distant and recent. This is…