Six Years Ago Today: Real Madrid Lift The European Super Cup In Cardiff

On August 12 2014 — just months after Real Madrid won La Decima in Lisbon — the team faced Sevilla in the European Super Cup in Cardiff.

It also so happened to be the game where Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez made their Real Madrid debuts, as Euan McTear wrote about here:

Two of the best players of the 2014 World Cup arrived at Real Madrid after the tournament in Brazil. James Rodríguez and Toni Kroos were both on the 10-man shortlist for the best player of the tournament, while the Colombian finished as the tournament’s top scorer and the German, of course, left Rio de Janeiro as a world champion.

The two World Cup stars made their debuts on the same night, in Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium. It was for the UEFA Super Cup against Europa League champions Sevilla and it was a chance to start off life at Los Blancos with a trophy. Thanks to two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, it finished in a 2-0 victory and the new arrivals duly left Wales with their first title at Real Madrid.

This was Carlo Ancelotti’s second year as coach and he set his side up in a 4-2-1-3, with James playing in the hole, in the role that Isco had occupied on several occasions the season before. Kroos, meanwhile, formed a double pivot with Luka Modrić. In the first half, Kroos and Modrić were very deep. Too deep, perhaps. With James and the BBC up top and with both full-backs – Dani Carvajal and Fábio Coentrão – getting really far forward and doing well in attack – yes, even Coentrão – it meant that Kroos and Modrić had to sit back. They had to help hold down the fort and focus more so on defence than on attack. At least for the first half.

Here are the full highlights from that game:

Where were you when this happened? Tell us your memories of that game below.