This will be decided 14km east in eight days’ time when Madrid’s rivals are sent back into battle once more. On a night that lacked a little thunder but had three superb goals – Rodrygo Goes, Julián Alvarez and Brahim Díaz all stepping inside to bend the ball beyond outstretched fingers and into the far corner – the Euro derby delivered a 2-1 victory for Real but no definitive conclusion.
Atlético host the second leg with optimism still; Real go to the Metropolitano with the small advantage Carlo Ancelotti requested of his players. “We could not have expected to end it here but that gives us hope,” he said.
It had been “very tactical”, Diego Simeone said, which was about right. He may feel frustrated that an hour’s control did not yield more, his team recovering from going behind in the fourth minute to draw level only for Díaz’s goal to beat them, his players unable to truly react a second time. He certainly did feel frustrated at how they had defended the two goals. And yet, like Ancelotti, he never expected this to be settled on the first night. Besides, 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 should have set up Vinícius Júnior for a dramatic and painfully familiar finale. But Llorente somehow got ahead of the Brazilian then and there was still time for Vinícius to dash away again, José María Giménez flying in to block. “That could have knocked us out. Maybe that leaves the door open to hope,” Simeone said. “And now, who knows, on Wednesday we could have a great night.”
It will surely be more explosive than this, a single goal standing between them, all or nothing. The first leg was, well, a first leg: a slightly cautious game, more about control than the kill, which began with two teams facing each other from distance, seemingly happy to wait and see what happens.
As it turned out, they did not have to wait long. The first pass Real delivered with any 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 his path. The Brazilian dashed into the area, turned away from Clément Lenglet and curled home: 3min 27sec and Real led. Two minutes later, Rodrygo was escaping Galán again, going down in the area – too easily, according to the referee, Clément Turpin. Next Vinícius escaped on the other wing, forcing Giménez to block. Again, it had not taken much, but Atlético appeared overawed by it all.
Appeared. Simeone’s call for his players to keep their heads was met; “the best thing was the reaction”, he said. Real had no central midfield; Atlético occupied it and, led by Rodrigo De Paul, began to accumulate passes. Real waited deep, passively watching De Paul and Antoine Griezmann move in front of them and, occasionally, through them, an ease to it all that brought frustrated whistles from the Bernabéu. By then, Real’s lead had gone. 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.
In the second half Thibaut Courtois denied Griezmann with a superb save and heard the whistles return. Atlético continued to exercise a kind of unhurried control which exposed some of Real’s flaws but also their own fears: at some point, they know through bitter experience, Real awaken. There is too much talent not to, for the threat to be entirely eliminated, even when the collective is not functioning. And so it was.
Díaz, Ferland Mendy and Vinícius combined and in a flash Díaz was cutting away from Giménez and curling into the net. The strike was similar to the two that went before and it changed the feel here, raising the volume; this was, Simeone admitted, a different game now.
Rebelling a second time was not so easy, still less once Luka Modric was introduced, someone to manage midfield. Simeone responded with Conor Gallagher and Nahuel Molina and then sent on the centre‑back Robin Le Normand for Griezmann. That might have felt like a statement of intent, a response to how the game had tilted: with a second leg to come and Real stirring now, it was more important to not concede another than to seek an equaliser. Only, it was followed soon after by the introduction strikers Ángel Correa and Alexander Sorloth, two men with a habit of scoring late goals.
Real have the same ability, too, of course and although there were few really clear opportunities until the 90th minute arrived – “it’s not so simple to play against the Atlético defence”, Ancelotti said – at the very last there they were: suddenly, Mbappé and Vinícius were in, their moment arriving. But Atlético survived and Real did too, living to fight again next week, when there will be no second chances and no way back.
