Diego Simeone said it had been a special week in Madrid, a “tremendous energy about the city”, and it closed the way he wanted. He had enjoyed the Formula One, he said, and he had enjoyed going to see Shakira. He enjoyed this even more, at least he did by the time the last of many, many blows on the referee’s whistle brought it to an end, sending him sprinting up the tunnel punching the air.
Two-nil up against 10 men through goals from Álex Grimaldo and Jonathan David, seemingly in control, a late strike from Antonio Rüdiger awoke old ghosts and brought tension to the final minutes, but they had done it. José Mourinho’s first derby back ended in defeat and recriminations: he turned up at the press conference with a picture of two moments in which he felt that Atlético players – Lee Kang-in and Cristian Romero – should have been sent off, and insisting that the story of the derby was there. And yet there are other questions: over the way Dean Huijsen gave away the penalty and got the red card that tilted the game against them, and the way Real played.
How little they did until that moment when, briefly, they appeared to have a lifeline. A familiar foe had defeated him. It is 13 years since these managers met in this fixture, their last time the day that Atlético finally broke a curse and won the Copa del Rey at the Santiago Bernabéu.
That night, Mourinho was sent off and didn’t go to get his runner’s-up medal from the king as Atlético won their first derby in 13 years. His return to Real Madrid has been driven in part by nostalgia and it was like old times in the press room. At times in the first half here it was like old times too.
Which were not always good. Mourinho and Simeone are “companions of war”, the Real manager had said, and so it was. Twenty minutes passed before the first shot, Aurélien Tchouaméni striking over from 25 yards, and it wasn’t until the 39th that there was one on target.
That came, perhaps inevitably, from outside the area and Oblak pushed Arda Guler’s effort away. Otherwise, not a huge amount else was happening. Not when it came to actual football, anyway: it had been heating up almost from the beginning, Guler the first to confront the referee after he was fouled by Álex Baena.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
