Atletico Madrid 1-1 Real Madrid: Match review | OneFootball

Nothing was able to separate the city rivals as Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid played out a hard fought 1-1 draw at the Civitas Metropolitano.

Luka Modric started the game as captain, with the rest of the lineup being quite obvious already.

The Merengues began the game on the positive note as they managed to attack twice at Atletico’s goal in the first 10 minutes. Fede Valverde (twice) and Aurelien Tchouaméni had a crack at goal from distance in the opening half.

The home side broke on the counter but were unable to salvage anything from it, with part of the blame falling to Sorloth’s poor decision-making. Los Blancos ended the first half without any damage and perhaps played their best opening 45 minutes of the season.

Diego Simeone, who had began the game with 5 at the back, reverted to a back 4, substituting Nahuel Molina – for Koke – who had held his ground in the duel against Vinicius Junior. Los Rojiblancos were a completely different side in the initial 7-10 minutes but it did not take Real Madrid long enough to create and bury a chance.

Luka Modric played a pass to Vinicius from an indirect free-kick, with the Brazilian finding his counter part Éder Militão inside the box, and the centre-back thumped it home to give Real Madrid a vital lead in the game.

An unfortunate event took place not long after the goal when Thibaut Courtois celebrated in front of the Atletico fans who were behind his goal which led to the home fans throwing objects on the field, reportedly consisting of lighters – the fan who threw the lighters, was also carrying a knife.

The match was paused for 10 minutes with a warning given to the Atletico fans that if such an event were to occur again, the whole fixture was going to be suspended and played another day. After a brief break, the players headed onto the field, with the game continuing from the 66th minute.

From there on, Simeone brought on some midfielders and attackers but what Carlo Ancelotti did was fairly surprising, to say the least.

Instead of handing an appearance to Eduardo Camavinga, the Italian bought on Lucas Vazquez and later on Fran García – now playing with a six-man defence consisting of four fullbacks and two centrebacks. Moreover, Vinicius, Rodrygo and Luka Modric were removed and Endrick’s fresh legs remained the only option in attack.

The youngster yet again was in acres of space as Real Madrid were on the counter attack but this time slotted a powerful left-footed shot wide.

With the game approaching the end and as many as 8-minutes added on, the Los Rojiblancos smelled blood.

The Real Madrid defence – particularly Antonio Rüdiger – was caught napping as Javi Galan played a pass out of nowhere to Angel Correa who went around Courtois and found the back of the net.

Suspicions of offside arose but not for long as the equaliser was given, leaving the Real Madrid players gutted as they were just two minutes away from securing an important 3 points.

Carlo Ancelotti’s tactics came as a surprise as the veteran manager did not take advantage of the lead and should have looked to kill the game by bringing on Eduardo Camavinga and Arda Güler.

Rüdiger losing focus and Endrick having a chance to pass it to Jude Bellingham instead of taking the shot may have been the two more events Madrid would be gutted about.

It would have been Real Madrid’s first victory at the Metropolitano in over two years and they would also have closed the gap on the league leaders, FC Barcelona, to just one point.

A game which should have been won fell out of their grasp but there are still 30 games left to go in La Liga, and Real Madrid have extended their unbeaten run to 40. Ancelotti’s side would be hoping to put this disappointing draw behind them and head into the next matches on a positive note.