Atletico – Real Madrid, Getty Images September 30, 2024, 12:24 AM

There are many interesting and principled confrontations in the Spanish La Liga, but in this country the word “derby” has the same heated connotation as in any other corner of the world. Especially when it comes to the Madrid derby, or El Derbi madrileño in the local manner, which was very passionate in the 10s of the current century, but in this decade its status has declined somewhat.

But not so much that Diego Simeone’s wards became close to Carlo Ancelotti’s team, and here also the active behavior of the “mattress players” in the summer transfer market forced the whole top of the tournament table to revive, where you can already see such teams as Mallorca and Osasuna. And only two teams from among all in La Liga stood out brightly – two big Madrid clubs, which had not lost a single game in the new campaign.

They didn’t really want to lose this time either, which was quite obvious even without watching the events on the field. Therefore, no one tried to take risks, and if there were attacks on someone’s goal, then it was necessarily a series of approaches. Mostly, in the performance of the “Blancos”, because the “Colchoneros” failed the starting minutes in terms of initiative in front, and then it was very difficult to capture the space.

However, the first real goal-scoring opportunity was not created by Carlo Ancelotti’s team, but by Diego Simeone’s players, when Alvarez’s rush to the left wing of the penalty box in the ninth minute ended with a shot into the far corner, but Courtois reacted. However, Oblaka had to save his own goal in the next game, when Valverde made a quality effort from a distance, but it was not possible to catch the experienced goalkeeper by surprise.

And so — Real Madrid had much more ball than the opponents, so it is not surprising that shortly before the break, the guests tried to go to someone else’s penalty area once again and look for happiness in creating scoring opportunities. But Ancelotti’s team found only Bellingham’s long shot, which Oblak managed – not a big booty, so the second half was a must-see.

And it was as if a mirror was placed on the middle line of the teams during the break, because the game had just resumed when Atlético very zealously began to seize space in the other half. Strangely enough, with the same result as Real before it – the opponents were the first to create danger near the Oblak goal, but this time they were more successful. Penalty in the 64th minute, Modrych cleverly rolled a hidden pass to the left to Vinicius, who executed a pass to the far side of the penalty area, where Militao shot the goal in two touches with a ricochet from Llorente.

The celebration of this goal from the “Blancos” was very passionate, as it should have been, and somewhere word for word, shout for shout, gesture for gesture, and the atmosphere in the stands of the Metropolitano exploded. Unfortunately, with immediate negative consequences for all of us. Garbage flew into Courtois, and what was there was not among the objects that were thrown at him by the fans of “mattressniki”. They were pacified later for who knows how long, but it is already obvious that there will be a severe punishment.

On the other hand, this forced delay later turned into a real firework of emotions, which made us remember that, indeed, this is the Madrid derby! That was a hot story! And it makes no sense to even follow the events very meticulously – the last half hour contained too much. Even Llorente was sent off for a flagrant foul against Fran García.

But this story already took place after, in the 90th + 4th minute, Galan’s pass from deep on the left flank found Correa in the penalty area behind the defenders, who shook Courtois and shot into an empty net. They say that the Belgian goalkeeper could have been injured in that episode. But no one noticed this right away, because Madrid stood on its ears in the middle of the night. And the derby did take place!

In the next round, Atletico host Basque side Real Sociedad amid a midweek away game against Lisbon’s Benfica, while Real travel to France’s Lille before taking on Villarreal at home.

Atletico – Real Madrid 1:1
Goals: Correa, 90+5 — Militan, 64

Atletico: Oblak — Molina (Koke, 46), Jimenez, Le Norman, Mandava (Galan, 75) — Llorente, De Paul, Gallagher (Correa, 70) — Griezmann — Serlot (Lino, 56), Alvarez (Riquelme, 75).

Real: Courtois – Carvajal, Rudiger, Militao, Mendy – Chuameni, Modric (Vazquez, 86) – Valverde, Bellingham, Vinicius (Andrik, 88) – Rodrigo (Garcia, 90).

Warnings: Le Normand, Gallagher, Alvarez – Modric

In the 90th + 9th minute, Marcos Llorente (Atletico) was sent off (foul).