Champions League Round of 16, 1st leg: Real Madrid 2 (Rodrygo 4, Díaz 55) Atlético 1 (Álvarez 32)
This will be decided 14km east of here in eight days’ time. On a night that lacked a little thunder but had three fantastic goals, Rodrygo, Julián Alvarez and Brahim Díaz all stepping inside to bend the ball beyond outstretched fingers and into the far corner, the city’s fifth European derby delivered a victory for Real Madrid but no definitive conclusion. Atlético will host the second leg next Wednesday, and they will go into an occasion likely to be a lot more explosive than this with hope.
Diego Simeone may feel frustrated that long periods of control did not result in win, his team recovering from going behind in the fourth of what will be at least 180 minutes to draw level only for Díaz’s goal to beat them, but he agreed with Carlo Ancelotti’s prediction that this tie was never going to be settled on the first night. And if it could have been better, it might also have been worse: in the last minute, Marcos Llorente had to dive in as Kylian Mbappé escaped deep into the area and almost set up Vinícius for a dramatic, and painfully familiar finale against their great rivals and there was still time for the Brazilian to escape once more. This time, José María Giménez put himself on the line.
A single goal, then, stands between them some battle still to be had.
The opening moments were static, two teams facing each other from distance, aware that there were at least 180 minutes ahead of them, seemingly happy to wait and see what happens. As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait long. The first pass Real delivered with intent brought the opener. Fede Valverde played it, and it was simple enough. Javi Galán had a start on Rodrygo but was slow to react and misjudged its path. The Brazilian dashed past him, into the area, turned away from Clément Lenglet and bent the ball into the far corner.
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Three minutes, 27 seconds and Real led. Exactly two minutes later, it happened again. A long diagonal from Antonio Rüdiger caught Galán this time, Rodrygo again escaping and heading into the area, where he went down – too easily in the opinion of the referee, Clément Turpin. Next Vinícius escaped on the other wing, forcing Giménez to block. Again, it hadn’t taken much, but Atlético appeared overawed by it all.
Appeared. Simeone was calling for his players to keep their heads, and in fact that was what they did. When Alvarez was released up the right and crossed for Samuel Lino on 15 minutes, it was the first time Atlético had found a way out, but not the last. Soon, led by Rodrigo De Paul, they had taken hold. Real had no central midfield; Atlético occupied it and began to accumulate passes, Real waiting every bit as much as their opponents had appeared to: deep and passive, watching De Paul and Antoine Griezmann move in front of them and, occasionally, through them, an ease to it all that eventually brought frustrated whistles from the Bernabéu.
By then, Real’s lead had gone too. Just after the half-hour, Alvarez collected on the left side of the area, lost it, got it back again, pushed past Eduardo Camavinga, and smashed a superb, swerving shot in off the far post.
The whistles returned with the second half, Atlético continuing to exercise a kind of unhurried control which revealed some of Real’s flaws but would have also frustrated their own fans. At some point, they know through bitter experience, Real awaken. There is too much talent there for them not to, for the threat to ever be entirely eliminated, even when the collective is not functioning. And so it was, soon after a long move from Atlético concluded with Galán crossing for De Paul to have the first opportunity since the restart.
Díaz, Ferland Mendy and Vinícius combined and, in a flash, Díaz was inside the area. Not free, but in a place where fast feet saw him cut away from Giménez and curl into the far corner, the strike a match of the two that had gone before and one that changed the entire feel here, raising the volume. Atlético tried to carry on, Griezmann getting free to fire just past the far post, the slight touch from Thibaut Courtois decisive. Ancelotti, meanwhile, introduced Luka Modric to give Real something in the middle.
Simeone responded with Conor Gallagher and Nahuel Molina and then, with 20 minutes to go, sent on the centre-back Robin Le Normand for Griezmann. That felt like a statement of intent, a response to how the game had started to tilt: with a second leg to come and Real stirring now, taking a hold, it was more important to not concede another than to seek an equaliser.
Only, it was followed soon after by the introduction of two strikers, Ángel Correa and Alexander Sørloth, for Pablo Barrios and De Paul. Here were two men with a habit of scoring late goals. So, of course, do Real and there at the last was Vinícius. Atlético survived, Real did too, living to fight again next week.
Meanwhile in evening’s final fixture, Dortmund and LOSC played out at 1-1 draw at Signal Iduna Park, Karim Adeyemi opening the scoring for the home side in the 22nd minute before Hákon Arnar Haraldsson produced the leveller for Lille after the break. – Guardian
