Real Madrid overcame the dismissals of Rafael van der Vaart and Ruud van Nistelrooy to secure a unlikely 4-2 success over Valencia in the Spanish Super Cup

The Liga champions trailed 3-2 after the first leg and did it the hard way at the Santiago Bernabeu by scoring twice late on despite being two-men light to claim the cup 6-5 on aggregate.

Things were looking good for Che early on with David Silva giving the visitors the lead only and things went from bad to worse for the home side when summer signing Rafael van der Vaart was given his marching orders.

Real levelled the contest shortly after half-time when free-scoring Ruud van Nistelrooy scored from the penalty spot, but then he suffered the same fate as Van der Vaart when he collected his second yellow card.

Despite all the odds Sergio Ramos gave the nine men an unlikely lead on 75 minutes, but remarkably the goals kept coming in a frantic finale in the Spanish capital.

Ruben da la Red put Real 3-1 up with three minutes to go before the home side added a fourth when Gonzalo Higuain found the back of the net.

Ex-Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes pulled one back against his former club to set up a grandstand finish, but it proved too little too late.