Izuchukwu OkosiBarcelona will face Real Madrid in Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia after Thursday night’s 2-0 win over Osasuna in the second semifinal game.
Real had defeated City rivals Atletico Madrid 5-3 in Wednesday’s pulsating first semifinal clash to set up the final.
Thursday’s game was at the edge and it ended goalless in the first half but former FIFA The Best winner Robert Lewandowski put the Blaugrana ahead in the 59th minute when he scored with a low shot after a beatiful pass from Ilkay Gundogan.
Andreas Christensen and Lewandowski had wasted good chances earlier in game as Sergio Herrera, in goal for Osasuna came to his club’s rescue.
Ante Budimir also missed a good opportunity for Osasuna.
Lamine Yamal scored Barca’s second goal in the third minute of added time to ensure El Classico for Sunday.
Barca are 14-time winners of the Spanish Super Cup.
The competition features the top three sides from last season’s La Liga – champions Barcelona, runners-up Real and third-placed Atletico Madrid, as well as Osasuna, who lost to Real in the Copa del Rey final.
All the matches are taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and this was the second of three games.
Atletico were five minutes away from moving into the final 24 hours earlier before Real’s Dani Carvajal scored to make it 3-3 and take it to extra time, with goals from substitutes Joselu and Brahim Diaz giving them a 5-3, eight-goal thriller.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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