Real Madrid welcomed Atletico Madrid on Saturday for a derby of the Spanish capital at the Alfredo Di Stefano stadium, which normally belongs to their Castilla side but is currently being used by the first team as well with the Santiago Bernabeu undergoing reconstruction.
Real deservedly won the game, with the scoreline of 2-0 arguably reflecting the balance of quality shown on the pitch in a very good measure. The La Liga table now looks much more interesting, with Atletico still in the lead with 26 points from 11 games and Real in third with 23, though after playing a game more than the Rojiblancos.
Carvajal back with a bang
It’s been a torrid start to the season for Dani Carvajal. He played two full games and suffered a medial collateral ligament injury after 33 minutes of the third, a 1-0 triumph over Real Sociedad on the last day of September. He missed five top-flight games, as well as three in the Champions League, and returned to play 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw against Villarreal on November 21 only to go missing again through a muscle issue.
But now he was back and he never looked like he’d been absent at all. The right flank of Real’s defence was his charge as ever, and it looked impenetrable as he covered it in style, while representing a significant attacking threat at the other end.
The brightest moment of his fine performance happened in the 63rd minute, when his rocket from just over 20 yards hit the post and bounced off the back of Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak back into the net – Real’s second goal which ultimately put the game out of reach for the visitors.
Carvajal was replaced in the 79th minute, with Lucas Vazquez ordered to drop to the back line and Marco Asensio coming on to take the place of the winger upfront. It seems coach Zinedine Zidane recognized his mistake from the Villarreal game and reacted accordingly.
Where was Suarez?
One of Real’s fiercest ‘enemies’ from recent years, Luis Suarez, left Barcelona to join Atletico this summer, and before this game he had five goals and an assist in 11 appearances in all competitions for his new club. We’ve witnessed the brilliance of the 33-year-old forward on numerous occasions, mostly at Barcelona, though his final season with Liverpool saw him win the Premier League Golden Boot with 31 league goals too.
But where was Suarez on Saturday?
He started the game, of course, and was on the pitch for 73 minutes, but it was like he wasn’t even there. As per WhoScored.com, he attempted 17 passes with a success rate of 64.7%, the smallest he’s had yet in any game this season. He took one shot, had no key passes, completed no dribbles, and was dispossessed twice. To put it simply, Suarez was no danger to Thibaut Courtois in Real’s goal at all. He was beaten practically every time by any defender he faced and looked dispirited and unmotivated throughout his time on the pitch.
It may have seemed a strange decision from coach Diego Simeone when Geoffrey Kondogbia, a central midfielder, came on to replace Suarez with the team two goals down, but the fact is, Atletico looked far more lively upfront with Angel Correa and Thomas Lemar upfront. Even though the two substitutes didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory either, at least they were involved in the game and continuously tried to make something happen.
Two faces of Atletico defence
Atletico Madrid have built a reputation under Simeone as a team with a brick-wall defence, very hard to penetrate, with players boasting a good balance of technical quality and physical strength. But the main thing in their defending has always been their smart positioning and responsible approach to any situation.
So what happened this time?
Atletico played in a 4-4-2 system with the two lines of four very close together, making it very hard indeed for Real to make use of the space between – there was very little of it, and it took something special – either terrific movement, ball control and desire from Karim Benzema, or a cunningly whipped pass from Toni Kroos, or a dazzling piece of dribbling from Vinicius Junior – to cause any threat to Oblak’s goal from open play.
But as Kroos took that corner in the 15th minute, something snapped in that usually excellent organization and three Atletico players ended up in each others’ way, leaving Casemiro completely free to jump and put his header into the net. Fast forward to the 63rd minute, and again three players were too slow to close down Carvajal as he fired the shot which ultimately ended as the second goal.
If this season has shown anything when it comes to Real Madrid, it’s that the 13-time European champions can be beaten, but not by leaving their players in lots of space in the final third.
Too little, too late
With Atletico known as a team with a highly defensive style under Simeone, it was expected they would drop deep from minute one, build walls in and around their own box and play very directly when chance came. But when the first goal came, they needed to change something and they obviously didn’t, whether through trying to remain patient or their opponents not allowing them to is open to debate.
They did look livelier after the second went in, they had a few promising chances from that point on and Courtois was definitely under more pressure, but it simply wasn’t happening for them. The impression is, they had to try and do more sooner if they had any thought of avoiding defeat after going down.
Victory deserved for Real
Real had 56% possession in this match, compared to Atletico’s 44%, and it should be said that these numbers shifted somewhat towards the visiting side late in the match; before that, the difference was much bigger. The number of shots taken perhaps reflects the balance of power on the pitch more – Real’s 12 compared to Atletico’s five.
A look at the La Liga table made it obvious that Real badly needed to win this game, and they approached it like that, while Atletico looked only keen of protecting their own goal for most of the contest. Stats and player ratings from websites like WhoScored.com can, of course, be misleading, but the fact that they have Marcos Llorente as the best-rated Atletico player from the starting XI at 6.5 tells a story here, with no Real starters below 6.9.
It’s hard to single out a Real player as the best in this match, but the importance of Toni Kroos should probably be mentioned first. The German’s contribution wasn’t flashy so it could, arguably, go unnoticed apart from the assist for the opening goal, but he did much more than that. He was always in the right place, dictating play and contributing both in defending and going forward equally.
Kroos attempted a total of 90 passes and completed 96.7% of them, 12 of them being accurate long balls and two key ones. He completed one dribble, made two tackles and one interception, one clearance, and he wasn’t dispossessed by an opponent all game.
All in all, Zidane’s men fully deserved the three points.
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