Locked in a fierce battle for the La Liga title, the place solely some extent separates them on the very high of the desk, Actual Madrid and Atletico Madrid crossed swords on the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday night and managed to earn not more than some extent every.
Julian Alvarez put Atleti forward from the penalty spot within the thirty fifth minute, after Aurelian Tchouameni was judged to have fouled Samuel Lino contained in the field, and Kylian Mbappe set the rating degree within the fiftieth.
Groups
Actual have been combating quite a few damage issues of their defensive position. 4 gamers – all defenders – had been unavailable: Antonio Rudiger, Eder Miliao, David Alaba and Dani Carvajal.
In such circumstances, Tchouameni, a midfielder by commerce, stepped into the center of defence alongside 21-year-old Raul Asencio, forming the final defence in entrance of Thibaut Courtios in purpose. Lucas Vazquez was on the appropriate defensive flank, and Fran Garcia, picked forward of Ferland Mendy, was on the left. Dani Ceballos anchored the midfield, with Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham in additional superior roles. The standard first-choice trio shaped the attacking line: Kylian Mbappe, flanked by Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Junior.
In the meantime, Atletico boss Diego Simeone had just one participant absent – defender Robin Le Normand, suspended by means of yellow-card accumulation.
With Jan Oblak between the posts, centre-backs Clement Lenglet and Jose Maria Gimenez had been flanked by Javi Galan on the left and former Actual man Marcos Llorente on the appropriate. Pablo Barrios and Rodrigo De Paul paired up in the midst of the park, with Giuliano Simeone and Lino in wider roles. Antoine Griezmann was joined by Alvarez in assault.
Key moments
Although Actual dominated the ball all through the match, the previous cliche of “a recreation of two halves” could be used to explain this contest.
Atletico’s defensive setup was completely impeccable within the first half. Although the preliminary lineup consisted of 4 defenders, the precise variety of gamers within the again line fluctuated from three to 6, in response to want. As soon as of their positions, the Rojiblancos made it inconceivable for opposing attackers, even ones as expert as these in Actual’s ranks, to interrupt their manner by means of.
Ancelotti’s males incessantly deployed numerous schemes, working to overload one flank one minute and the opposite one the following, however the defensive flexibility and self-discipline of the guests thwarted them wherever they went. Every time Vinicius, Mbappe or Rodrygo managed to dribble or go previous one opponent, they’d instantly be going through one other two. There was merely no manner by means of, they usually didn’t handle a single shot heading in the right direction within the first half.
In reality, the one shot heading in the right direction total within the first half was the penalty taken by Alvarez within the thirty fifth minute, and that’s the best way Atletico needed it to be. Talking of the penalty, referee Cesar Soto initially didn’t give it, however the VAR intervened and despatched him to see how Tchouameni mistimed his sort out and stepped on Lino’s foot. Courtois tried to place Alvarez off with some goal-line gymnastics earlier than the shot, however the Argentina worldwide was too shrewd for that to work, and his calmly positioned effort by means of the center made the Belgian goalkeeper look a bit foolish.
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However the second half regarded completely completely different immediately. The self-discipline and technique of the Atletico defence all of a sudden appeared non-existent, enabling the tempo and talent of the Actual attackers to lastly come to mild.
5 minutes in, the rating was set degree as Rodrygo labored his well beyond Lino on the appropriate flank and pulled the ball again in direction of the six-yard line for Bellingham, and the England worldwide actually ought to’ve scored from there, relatively than seeing Gimenez block his shot from there, however fortunately for him, Mbappe was on-hand to place the sort rebound into the web.
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Actual exploded into life at that time, and Atletico had the crossbar and the trademark high quality of goalkeeper Oblak to thank for not going from being in entrance to being behind inside a number of minutes. Rodrygo all of a sudden grew to become an excessive amount of for Lino and Galan on one facet, Vinicius an excessive amount of for Llorente and Simeone on the opposite, and Simeone senior within the dugout felt he needed to react. He withdrew his son, in addition to Galan and Lino, within the sixty fourth minute, making manner for Koke, Nahuel Molina and Reinildo.
Because the Atletico boss supposed, the adjustments slowed the sport down a bit, and within the 77th minute, he did one thing a bit daring from his perspective as De Paul made manner for a extra attack-minded participant in Angel Correa. At that time, Atletico grew to become harmful with their refreshed counterattacking tempo, and it was Ancelotti’s flip to start out making adjustments.
With 10 minutes to go, veteran Luka Modric and Eduardo Camavinga changed Ceballos and Vazquez. This meant Valverde dropping to the right-back position to make manner for Modric in midfield, whereas Camavinga took Ceballos’ place on the base.
However although Actual continued dominating and searching for a profitable purpose and Atletico threatened very severely on the different finish just a few instances, the scoreline remained unchanged.
Title race implications
The factors had been due to this fact shared between town rivals and their respective positions within the La Liga desk are precisely as they had been going into the match. Actual prepared the ground with 50 factors, Atletico are second with 49. Neither might be too completely happy about that, nor will they grieve overmuch.
It was a chance – an extended shot, admittedly – for Atletico to overhaul Actual and they’ll rue the autumn of their efficient defensive setup after the break. Alternatively, not dropping underneath the strain of enjoying in opposition to Actual Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu is not any small feat, and one slip-up from Los Blancos might toggle their positions promptly.
That is exactly the rationale why Actual gained’t be proud of this consequence both – they may’ve elevated the hole and given themselves some leeway.
Additional extra, the 2 Madrid groups have offered third-place Barcelona with an opportunity to come back inside some extent from Atletico and two from Actual, in the event that they beat Sevilla on Sunday.
Actual’s consideration will now absolutely flip to Tuesday and the primary leg of their Champions League play-off encounter with Manchester Metropolis within the northwest of England, adopted by a visit to Osasuna, and the rematch in opposition to Metropolis on the Bernabeu.
As for Atletico, they’ve booked a spot within the Champions League spherical of 16 already and have per week to organize for his or her match at residence in opposition to Celta Vigo.
