The tactical battles of El Clasico: Gavi's new role, the Vinicius factor & more

Real Madrid might have won the Supercopa de Espana Clasico in Saudi Arabia, but there was enough in Barcelona's performance to suggest they will be hunting their old rivals down soon enough.

On the sideline Xavi Hernandez changed his players' positions, while Carlo Ancelotti rejigged his own side's roles.

Here were some of the key tactical battles from a thrilling Supercopa semi-final.

Asensio's positioning caused Jordi Alba problems

All night Marco Asensio was drifting infield from the right flank, giving Jordi Alba a decision - whether to follow him and close the spaces nearer Gerard Pique, or stay wider and keep tabs on Dani Carvajal, who was regularly lost by the meandering Ousmane Dembele.

Creating danger in this area was a constant theme of Real Madrid's approach, and it played a part in their eventual triumph.

Barcelona's pressing left space for Vinicius

Barcelona - as you sense they will always do under Xavi - tried to remain faithful to their Cruyffian ideology and win the ball back from their opponents as they tried to play out.

But in the first half Real Madrid managed to break the first line of that press - and it caused Barcelona no end of problems, with Vinicius in particular finding himself in lots of space and 1v1 duels without any retreating defensive cover.

Xavi seemed to address these failings after half time and Barcelona subsequently came into the game more in the second half.

Gavi the roaming attacker

Barcelona were nominally expected to line up in a 4-3-3, with Gavi and Frenkie de Jong flanking Sergio Busquets in midfield.

But that wasn't really the case, as on many occasions Gavi was roaming further forward, sometimes just ahead of the Real Madrid midfield and sometimes even between Nacho Fernandez and Ferland Mendy.

The latter was particularly the case when Barcelona had the ball, as he sought to give his teammates an option in dangerous attacking areas, from where he could turn and run at the backline.

Dembele's change of wings

Typically a right winger, Xavi decided to station Dembele on the left flank, primarily to try and test out the returning Carvajal.

And the Blaugrana coach was right to do so, with the few moments of danger that they created in the first half coming down that side.

It continued to be the case in the second period, too.

Xavi's bold decision paid off initially, but ultimately cost them the game

At 2-1 down, Xavi had to take some risks to get back in the game.

And that he did, going with a three-man defence of Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo and Jordi Alba and pushing them right up to the halfway line.

If that got them back in the game with Ansu Fati's goal, it also led to their downfall as Real Madrid broke forward, with Fede Valverde converting the winner from a four-versus-two scenario.