Real Madrid have won the 2024 Intercontinental Cup after beating Pachuca 3-0 in Wednesday’s final.

Goals from Kylian Mbappe, Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior secured victory for Carlo Ancelotti’s side over the Liga MX club at Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar.

Madrid qualified for the Intercontinental Cup — FIFA’s new annual mid-season competition, replacing the previous iteration of the Club World Cup — after winning the Champions League, while opponents Pachuca won the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Madrid opened the scoring in Doha after 37 minutes, Vinicius Jr rounding goalkeeper Carlos Moreno and teeing up Mbappe, who finished into an empty net.

Rodrygo doubled Madrid’s advantage seven minutes into the second half as he worked space for a shot on the edge of the area and curled the ball past Moreno. The goal was subject to a pitch-side VAR check, but an offside Jude Bellingham was deemed to not be interfering with play in the build up.

Madrid were awarded a penalty nine minutes from time after Oussama Idrissi was judged to have fouled Lucas Vazquez in the box following a VAR review. The recently crowned FIFA Best men’s player the year Vinicius Jr dispatched the subsequent spot kick, despite Moreno getting a hand to his effort.

Pachuca were denied a late consolation goal after Angel Mena’s header was ruled out for offside as Madrid secured a comfortable victory.

Madrid won the previous iteration of the Club World Cup on five occasions, most recently in 2022, and were the competition’s most successful club.

“There are so many of them (titles). I’m delighted, really happy… it’s a success story,” Ancelotti told Spanish television channel Telecinco.

“Today I really liked the attitude from the players. Up front, they made the difference, Vinicius Jr had a great game. Offensively we did well.

“We have a lot of quality. Kylian had a good game, Rodrygo scored the second. We are very happy because we won a title far from home and in the middle of a busy season.”

‘The perfect end to an unforgettable 2024 for Madrid’

Analysis from The Athletic’s Real Madrid correspondent Mario Cortegana

Although most people said it was a game in which Real Madrid had much to lose and little to gain, Los Blancos come away from Qatar with very good news.

The title is the perfect end to an unforgettable 2024, with five out of six trophies won: the Spanish Super Cup in January, La Liga in May, the Champions League in June, the European Super Cup in August and the Intercontinental Cup in December.

The triumph also silences the noise (admittedly more external than internal) about the future of Carlo Ancelotti, who overtook Miguel Munoz to become the coach with the most titles (15) in the club’s history.

In addition, and although the FIFA Best winner remains Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe was also on the scoresheet, just two years after scoring a hat-trick in the very same Lusail Stadium in the final of the 2022 World Cup. There were also no injuries to report, which is news in itself for Madrid this season.

(Mahud Hams/AFP via Getty Images))