Hansi Flick said he was "really proud" of an "unbelievable" performance from his Barcelona team, after they fought back from a goal down to thrash Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Supercopa final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Barça were up against it when Kylian Mbappé put Madrid in front after just five minutes at the Al Jawhara Stadium, Jeddah, but turned the game around thanks to a brace from Raphinha and goals from Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Alejandro Balde.

"I'm really proud," Flick said in his post-match news conference. "Proud for the team, the staff, the club, the fans, everyone. Today was an unbelievable match. For the coaches, not so much! But for the fans it's really fantastic."

Flick's team began the season strongly and were leading LaLiga before a poor run of form in November and December saw them drop points in six of their last seven league games, with Flick's tactics questioned.

"We have to learn from every match, and today's match," Flick said, when asked what the Supercopa win meant for the rest of the campaign. "We can do things better, but we have a young team. We had some weeks where we didn't perform so good, and our situation in the league now is not nice. We speak about all these things in the dressing room, but for me it's important to focus on the next match."

"We know what we have to do on the pitch. "We believe in the boss and the boss believes in us," captain Raphinha said in his post-match news conference, after being named the final's MVP. "The important thing is we can fight for titles and win them."

Despite playing with 10 men for the last half hour after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was shown a red card, Barcelona's lead never looked under threat.

Szczesny started both games in the Supercopa, after regular keeper Iñaki Peña was dropped after arriving late for a team meeting.

"When Wojciech was sent off, for us it wasn't easy," Flick said. "Iñaki did fantastic, from zero to hero. But I'm very proud of how we defended, every situation, defending the goal as one team."

It's Barcelona's second Clásico victory of the season after they won 4-0 at Madrid in October.

"I don't want to look back," Flick said. "Today is a good day, we beat one of the best teams in the world, for the second time this season, it's unbelievable, we win a title here and we're very happy. Today is a day to be positive."

Carlo Ancelotti said he was "sad and disappointed" after Real Madrid's 5-2 Supercopa final defeat to Barcelona in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, while admitting his team "didn't defend well."

Kylian Mbappé put Madrid ahead in the fifth minute before Lamine Yamal levelled and goals from Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Alejandro Balde put Barça 4-1 up at half-time. Raphinha added a fifth goal after the break before goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off, and Rodrygo pulled a goal back for Madrid.

The result was a boost for Barcelona and coach Hansi Flick after their league form had slumped in recent weeks, and a blow for Madrid, who missed out on what would have been their third trophy this season.

"We have to look at the reality. We didn't defend well," a deflated Ancelotti said in his post-match news conference. "We tried to press high and defend with a low block. They scored the goals easily, and we didn't work hard, collectively or individually.

"We lost a lot of duels. That makes us sad and disappointed, but that's football. We have to take that sadness home. I understand the sadness of our fans. We feel that, but we have to look forward, and prepare for the next game, and recover the good form we'd been in."

Madrid are next in action in the Copa del Rey last 16 on Thursday, hosting Celta Vigo at the Bernabéu, before playing Las Palmas in LaLiga.

"I won't name anyone, I'm talking about the whole team," Ancelotti said. "We didn't defend well, we weren't compact, and we have to defend better ... We had an extra man [after Szczesny's red card] and we couldn't find solutions. But that doesn't hurt more, I'm sad about the game as a whole."

The Italian coach praised Mbappé, who has now scored in all three final appearances for Madrid -- the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and now the Spanish Supercopa -- and has found the net 14 times in all competitions this season.

"I'd focus on Mbappé, who had a very good game," Ancelotti said. "It was a great move to score the goal. But the rest we should forget about, and look forward."

Meanwhile, Luka Modric vowed that Madrid would bounce back from the heavy defeat at the hands of their arch-rivals and apologised to the club's fans.

"I'm sure we're going to react after this tough defeat," Modric told reporters. "We didn't expect to lose like that, but it's football. We're sorry to the fans. We have to keep going, stay united, there's a lot of season left ... You can't always win. If you have to lose a trophy, we'd prefer it to be this one.

"We have to congratulate Barcelona, they played a very good game, they were better and that's all. We have to improve and correct our mistakes."

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- In the historic centre of Jeddah, in the old heart of the city, there's a football pitch. It isn't much: an uneven, artificial turf surface and two undersized goals. There are floodlights, and white lines painted on the ground, but no seats for spectators. It's surrounded by crumbling walls, half-abandoned buildings, and a few palm trees. This is football, like it has always been, everywhere.

But the game has changed. The 2034 FIFA World Cup is coming. Cristiano Ronaldo plays here in the Saudi Pro League, and so does Karim Benzema, at Jeddah's Al Ittihad. And 20 miles to the north of that pitch -- an hour's drive on a good day for traffic -- there's another: inside the 62,000 capacity Al Jawhara Stadium, in King Abdullah Sports City, the venue for the 2025 Spanish Supercopa.

A football pitch in Jeddah. But not the one where tonight's Clásico was played. Piece on the Supercopa coming up for @ESPNFC... pic.twitter.com/QNTSFRX9In

Alex Kirkland (@alexkirkland) January 12, 2025

This tournament has been held in Saudi Arabia since 2020 -- with a year off for the pandemic -- switching between Jeddah and the capital, Riyadh. Its latest iteration pits last season's top two LaLiga finishers and Copa del Rey finalists against each other in a "final four." A contract signed until 2029 is worth around 40 million a year to the Spanish football federation (RFEF). Half of that goes to the clubs.

Everybody here, except the fans of the other two teams involved, wants a Real Madrid-Barcelona final. It's the revamped tournament's raison d'etre: bringing a competitive Clásico, with a trophy at stake, to Saudi Arabia, with all of the attention -- and profit -- that generates.

"Are you going to the game?" a luggage handler at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport asked, excited. "I hope it will be Real Madrid vs. Barcelona. It would be a beautiful final."

And it was, their third Clásico Supercopa final in a row, after Barça's 3-1 win in 2023 and Madrid's 4-1 victory in 2024. Sunday's 5-2 win for Barcelona had everything. Seven goals. A penalty. A red card. These games are inherently unpredictable, Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti had explained a day earlier.

"Quality prevails," Ancelotti said. "There's so much individual quality that it overcomes the collective, which is above all in defence."

As it turned out, it wasn't a bad summary. Individual quality? For Barcelona, that meant Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. For Madrid: Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior.

Defending? Not so much.

The lapses from both teams only added to the drama. Barcelona had two chances to score in the first five minutes alone, Thibaut Courtois saving Yamal's curling shot and then Raphinha's header. But less than a minute later, Madrid went ahead on the counterattack, Mbappé sprinting from the halfway line, twisting Alejandro Balde in knots before shooting across goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Mbappé's first Clásico, in LaLiga in October, was a misfire: Madrid lost 4-0 and Mbappé experienced a mini-crisis of faith, caught a record eight times by Barcelona's ruthlessly tight offside trap. Here, his confidence was high. Madrid have played three finals this season: the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the Spanish Supercopa. Mbappé has scored in all of them. Soon he was brushing off challenges, Ronaldo Nazario style, before being brought down, hurting his ankle.

But Barcelona's dominance of possession was already striking, with 83% of the ball in the first 20 minutes. And it wasn't long before they were level, a quick passing move ending with Lewandowski playing in Yamal, who did what he does -- cutting inside, Lionel Messi-like, and finishing left-footed past Courtois. The goals kept coming. In the 35th minute, a penalty to Barça, awarded after a VAR check found Eduardo Camavinga had caught Gavi with his studs. Lewandowski scored to make it 2-1.

This was already exactly the spectacle the federation and the Saudis wanted, the two biggest clubs in the world going toe-to-toe. But then Barcelona found another gear, and Real Madrid collapsed.

"They scored the goals easily," Ancelotti said afterwards. "We lost a lot of duels. ... I don't have to name anyone, I'm talking about the whole team, we didn't defend well."

There were two more Barcelona goals before half-time, Raphinha powering a header past Courtois, and Balde scoring in the last of nine added minutes. It was 4-1, and on the Barcelona bench, the substitutes and staff were leaping into the air in joyous celebration. Ancelotti made changes, bringing on Dani Ceballos for Camavinga -- who had been yellow-carded -- and Rodrygo gave Madrid hope, hitting the crossbar from an offside position. But a minute later, Raphinha had scored again. 5-1.

The Real Madrid fans inside the stadium sat in stunned silence. Barcelona's could barely believe what was happening, either. The game was over as a contest, but still, the action kept coming. Mbappé went past Szczesny and was brought down on the edge of the box, the keeper sent off, Barça down to 10 men. Rodrygo converted the free kick. There was even time for Dani Olmo -- whose availability for the tournament was in doubt until Spain's sports ministry ruled that he should be temporarily reregistered as a Barça player -- to play the last half hour. By the final whistle, many of the Madrid fans had already left their seats and headed for the exits.

Barcelona's win is emblematic of a season defined so far by its uncertainty. Barça looked unstoppable early on, leading the way in LaLiga; then their form fell apart, as Madrid slowly found themselves, and Bellingham started scoring. But Barça haven't always been played badly in defeat, and Madrid often haven't convinced in victory. And right now, neither team is on top of LaLiga anyway, at the season's midpoint: that's Atletico Madrid, who quietly beat Osasuna 1-0 in the league on Sunday.

What happens in the second half of the season is anyone's guess, but this was a triumphant night of rebirth for Barcelona, coach Hansi Flick and his players, and a major blow for Madrid, who don't lose many finals, certainly not conceding five goals.

And it was a very good night for the Spanish football federation. Selling a product like this is easy.

"For us [Saudis], football belongs to two countries: Brazil and Spain," Fahad, a driver and security guard, told me before the game. It's illustrious company. After winning Euro 2024, Spain is back, the image of the national team restored. After this Supercopa, so are Barcelona.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott stated the obvious after the No. 2 seed Bills defeated the No. 7 seed Denver Broncos 31-7 in the wild-card round Sunday to move on to the divisional round, where they will host the No. 3 seed Baltimore Ravens next weekend.

"I mean, this is what everyone's been waiting for, right," McDermott said.

The Bills will be coming off a commanding performance versus the Broncos. The offense scored 31 straight points and finished only two drives without points -- one on a punt, the other at the end of the game -- led by a strong performance from quarterback Josh Allen, who was 20-of-26 for 272 yards and two passing touchdowns. The rushing attack went for 210 yards, including 46 by Allen. The defense limited the Broncos and rookie Bo Nix to 2-of-9 on third down.

The matchup that now awaits the Bills has been much anticipated as a possibility since the playoff seeding was finalized, with the game featuring the two favorites for MVP -- Allen led the odds over Lamar Jackson in the regular season -- and the quarterbacks on the All-Pro first team (Jackson) and second team (Allen). The showdown will be a rematch of the Week 4 meeting that the Ravens won 35-10.

"It'll be a nice week, and everyone will be looking forward to it, and they're a great football team," McDermott said. "They handled us pretty good the first go-around and they're certainly playing well, well-coached. [Ravens coach John Harbaugh] won a Super Bowl and comes from great pedigree, so it'll be a big challenge for us."

In the regular-season matchup, the Ravens got a Derrick Henry 87-yard touchdown run on their first possession and quickly built a 21-3 lead, and the Bills couldn't recover. Buffalo did not have starting linebackers Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard and nickel corner Taron Johnson for that game.

The opposite happened against the Broncos on Sunday.

Denver scored an opening-drive, 43-yard touchdown on a pass from Nix to Troy Franklin to go up 7-0, but the entire Bills team responded and didn't look back.

"It's 58 more minutes left in that game," cornerback Rasul Douglas said. "You can't harp [on] two minutes, you know what I mean? You have a bad day for four minutes. You say you had a whole bad day? You got 23 more hours and some change to change it. So, that's how we look at it."

The Broncos had only 102 passing yards that were not part of that touchdown pass, and only one of their four second-half drives went for more than four plays. An offense that came in having given up three sacks on the season (tied for third fewest) allowed two, and Nix was pressured on 13 of 27 dropbacks (48%), the second-highest rate he has faced in his career. Nix was 6-of-9 for 90 yards with a touchdown, the two sacks and a scramble against the pressure, but for the Bills, it was their best percentage this season.

Von Miller had a season-high six pressures against his former team, while the rest of the Bills' defense had seven.

"It really was just a message to ourselves," defensive end Greg Rousseau said. "We know who we are week after week and what we're capable of and what we're supposed to do out there. That's what it's all about. We're not worried about sending a message to anybody; we just know we've got to go out there and execute, win games."

The win marked the Bills' seventh of the season (including the playoffs) by 20 or more points -- two more than any other team -- thanks in part to the rushing attack led by James Cook and the offensive line. Cook finished with 23 carries for 120 yards -- the most by a Bills player in a playoff game since Thurman Thomas in 1995 against the Miami Dolphins -- and one touchdown. The Bills finished with a time of possession of 41:43, which is the fifth highest in a postseason game over the past 20 seasons.

Though the win was emphatic, the Bills have made the team's goal clear from the start. Douglas said this team has yet to peak. And to get to that point? "Just keep playing," Douglas said. The next test is coming quickly.

"I'ma enjoy the win first, but I love playing good on good football," left tackle Dion Dawkins said. "We have a lot of competitors on our team, and when juggernauts come into town or when we go to their spot, the intensity is up. And I love it. I love when the intensity is high, but we'll see 'em in a week. They're a good team and we look forward to it."

PHILADELPHIA -- Jalen Hurts tossed two touchdown passes in his first game since a late-season concussion, Dallas Goedert threw three stiff-arms on a rugged TD catch and the Philadelphia Eagles rode their NFL-best defense to a 22-10 wild-card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.

Hurts threw for a modest 131 yards, but played with no hesitation in his return from a three-week layoff after a concussion in December. He started strong -- six straight completions to open the game -- and held off the Packers with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Goedert in the third quarter that will be forever stamped on the franchise's postseason highlight reel.

"That was a really fun play. It might my favorite touchdown of my career," Goedert said. "I had one guy to beat and I was able to do that. I'm not ready to go home, and I was going to do whatever it took to help the team get the 'W.'"

Philadelphia's defense handled the rest.

The Eagles turned a recovered fumble on the opening kickoff into Hurts' first TD pass three plays later and the defense picked off Jordan Love twice in the first half. Holding a 19-10 lead in the fourth, the Eagles forced a turnover on downs when Green Bay had a fourth-and-3 on its own 41 with five minutes left in the game.

Quinyon Mitchell had one final interception of Love with 1:51 left in the game that sealed the win for the NFC East champions, who'll host a division game next week at the Linc.

Hurts said the Eagles need to "find our rhythm earlier in the game."

"I think it's been an odd year in a sense of how choppy it's been, and obviously me kind of being on leave the last couple weeks or so," Hurts said. "Being back and just getting into that rhythm and leaving it all out there right now, that's what it's about."

Barkley, who led the NFL in rushing with 2,005 yards, had 119 yards in his Eagles' postseason debut.

"A year ago, I put out a tweet when I was on my couch watching playoff football that I gotta find a way to get back in it," said Barkley, who spent his first six NFL seasons with the New York Giants. "So I'm just happy to be here.

"And shoutout to my teammates and, most importantly, we move on. And we get another home game, so that's good."

The Eagles even had time for some light reading as wide receiver A.J. Brown flipped through the pages of "Inner Excellence" by Jim Murphy while on the bench. Brown had one catch for 10 yards.

Love threw for 212 yards and was intercepted three times and sacked twice as he nursed a sore right elbow that was hurt in the regular-season finale against Chicago.

"That was their goal to take away the run, and they did a good job of that," Love said. "It just comes down to executing and making plays out there, and it just wasn't good enough."

Josh Jacobs ran for 81 yards and a score -- and popped Green Bay's offense with a 31-yard run in the third where he shook off one tackle, had his jersey stretched to his heel by one defender, plowed one more and dragged two more hapless Eagles to the 1-yard line. Jacobs punched it in for the score on the next play and cut it to 16-10.

Aided by an unnecessary roughness flag on Green Bay, Hurts got the Eagles close enough for Jake Elliott to kick a 30-yard field goal for a 19-10 lead. Elliott needed the short kick for a confidence boost after he missed an extra point on Goedert's touchdown.

Elliott, who struggled with kicks from 50-plus yards this season, added a 32-yarder in the fourth and a 31-yarder in the first quarter.

The Eagles had the Linc thumping, from the time the public address announcer put a little relish on his command to, "Welcome back to the Eagles lineup, Jalen Huuurts," to the recovered fumble moments later.

Green Bay's Keisean Nixon had the ball knocked loose by Oren Burks and it was recovered by Jeremiah Trotter Jr. at the Green Bay 28. Hurts needed only three plays to find Jahan Dotson for an 11-yard touchdown.

Darius Slay went over his shoulder for the cornerback to haul in the ball like an elite receiver for an interception and All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun made it two for the Eagles. The Eagles didn't score off those picks, but did keep the Packers off the board.

"They got good players," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of the Eagles' defense. "Even when we were running the quick game, they were triggering and coming downhill and smacking us in the back too many times. They played better than us, bottom line."

Brandon McManus, who missed a 38-yard earlier, hit one from 26 yards to make it 10-3 at halftime.

Hurts put all immediate questions about his health to rest when he completed his first six passes for 39 yards, including the TD to Dotson. He then missed his next seven going into the half. He didn't complete another pass until late in the third quarter, then hit seven of his final eight overall, that included the Goedert TD catch.

"I don't think we had the game we wanted to have on offense," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "Jalen did a lot of good things. Jalen is a winner. He wins. No one can argue that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got a surge of life in the first half against the Washington Commanders when franchise record receiver Mike Evans scored a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game at 10-10 at the half.

The Bucs' defense struggled to get off the field with the Commanders having possession for seven more minutes and the Bucs trailing 10-3, but quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 3 of 3 passes for 43 yards and added an 18-yard scramble.

FIRE THE CANNONS

: #WASvsTB on NBC pic.twitter.com/MgreDmaIk6

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) January 13, 2025

Then Evans drew a defensive pass interference penalty on cornerback Marshon Lattimore in the corner of the end zone, advancing the Bucs from the Washington 12 to the Washington 1-yard line, with Mayfield connecting with Evans on a slant route against Lattimore.

It was the' sixth postseason touchdown of Evans' career.

The highly anticipated Evans-Lattimore matchup has been one-sided despite the Commanders being in control of the first half as a hole. Evans has gone 4-for-4 for 55 receiving yards with Lattimore as the nearest defender, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, already the second-most receiving yards Evans has had against Lattimore in his career.

Prior to Sunday, Evans' career best against Lattimore was in Week 1 of the 2018 season, where he caught four passes for 115 yards and a touchdown, according to ESPN Research.

Hurts tosses 2 TD passes and Goedert throws 3 stiff-arms to lead Eagles past Packers 22-10

Dallas Goedert fired one stiff arm to a Packers defender, smacked him again and then in a sports city known for its Broad Street Bullies dispatched one final shot to the face on his way to end zone.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers have decided not to build a $1.3 billion downtown arena, a surprising move that comes just weeks after the team received approval for the controversial project from the city council.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday that multiple council members had confirmed the change in plans. The team has struck a deal with Comcast Spectacor to remain in the city's sports stadium district, the newspaper said, but further details about the new proposal have not been released.

The 76ers, the mayor's office and Comcast Spectator -- which owns the Wells Fargo Center, where the team currently plays -- did not respond Sunday to requests for comment. The team rents the arena from Comcast Spectacor, which also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, who play there too.

Opponents of the arena's move to downtown celebrated the news.

Two City Council members who voted against the plan, Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau, said the reversal shows that the 76ers' development arm had not dealt in good faith with the city.

"We're glad that the Sixers will remain in the stadium district where they best belong. But the way they reached this decision reflects a profound lack of respect for City leaders, stakeholders, and residents," Gauthier and Rue said in a statement.

The 76ers' downtown development plan had pitted working-class Philadelphians against each another and the team had pressured City Council to consider a "half-baked" proposal that left open questions about gridlock and the displacement of the city's Chinatown section, they said.

The council had voted Dec. 19 to approve the downtown arena after more than two years of heated debate over the proposal, and the owners of the NBA team had hoped to move into what would be called 76 Place by 2031. The council vote came despite vocal opposition from nearby Chinatown residents and other activists.

"I'm so livid right now I don't even know what to do," Jimmy Harrity, an at-large member of the council, told the newspaper. Harrity, who supported the team's move, said, "I feel as though I was used as a pawn."

Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat who had championed the plan, has said the entire city will benefit from what she called a "historic game-changing economic development project." Supporters had hoped the 18,500-seat arena would help revive a distressed retail corridor called Market East, which runs from City Hall to the Liberty Bell. The area has struggled for years despite redevelopment efforts.

The team owner, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, had pushed for city approval by year's end so it could meet the target opening date. It had vowed not to ask the city for any construction funding, although it was free to seek state and federal funds. Instead of property taxes, it would have paid about $6 million in annual payments.

Opponents feared the arena would bring gridlock on game days as well as gentrification and rising rents to the area.

The Chinatown community has fought a series of proposed developments since the 1960s, including casinos, a prison, a baseball stadium and a highway, the last of which dissected the neighborhood when it opened in 1991.