Locked in a fierce battle for the La Liga title, the place solely some extent separates them on the very prime 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 battling 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 guts of defence alongside 21-year-old Raul Asencio, forming the final defence in entrance of Thibaut Courtios in aim. Lucas Vazquez was on the precise 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 same old first-choice trio fashioned 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 via 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 precise. Pablo Barrios and Rodrigo De Paul paired up in the course 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 sport of two halves” might 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 line with 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 means via.
Ancelotti’s males steadily deployed varied schemes, working to overload one flank one minute and the opposite one the subsequent, however the defensive flexibility and self-discipline of the guests thwarted them wherever they went. At any time when 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 means via, and so they didn’t handle a single shot on course within the first half.
In actual fact, the one shot on course general within the first half was the penalty taken by Alvarez within the thirty fifth minute, and that’s the way in which 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 deal with 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 via the center made the Belgian goalkeeper look a bit foolish.
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However the second half regarded totally totally different immediately. The self-discipline and technique of the Atletico defence out of the blue appeared non-existent, enabling the tempo and ability 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 precise flank and pulled the ball again in the direction of the six-yard line for Bellingham, and the England worldwide actually ought to’ve scored from there, somewhat than seeing Gimenez block his shot from there, however fortunately for him, Mbappe was on-hand to place the type 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 out of the blue turned 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 means for Koke, Nahuel Molina and Reinildo.
Because the Atletico boss meant, the modifications 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 means for a extra attack-minded participant in Angel Correa. At that time, Atletico turned harmful with their refreshed counterattacking tempo, and it was Ancelotti’s flip to start out making modifications.
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 means for Modric in midfield, whereas Camavinga took Ceballos’ place on the base.
However although Actual continued dominating and searching for a successful aim and Atletico threatened very critically on the different finish a couple of 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 cleared the path with 50 factors, Atletico are second with 49. Neither will likely be too pleased about that, nor will they grieve overmuch.
It was a possibility – an extended shot, admittedly – for Atletico to overhaul Actual and they’ll rue the autumn of their efficient defensive setup after the break. However, not shedding beneath the strain of enjoying towards Actual Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu isn’t any small feat, and one slip-up from Los Blancos might toggle their positions promptly.
That is exactly the rationale why Actual received’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 return 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 towards 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 dwelling towards Celta Vigo.
