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Real Madrid’s big week came to a perfect end on Saturday. If these three games in seven days are going to define his season as the narrative had stated, far from reaching a premature end, it looks like it will be enjoyable again. Zinedine Zidane was nervous and with an ultimatum, his team threatened to be eliminated from the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in history and to be left so drift at the national level as to be practically done. But they did what they always seem to do in situations like these and rose again, beating Sevilla, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach and doing what no one had done since February by also beating Atlético de Madrid.
On Friday afternoon Zidane had declared Atlético the favorite to win the League; on Saturday night his team defeated their city rivals 2-0 with a first-half goal from Casemiro and then an own goal from Jan Oblak. Diego Simeone’s team had 26 games without losing, since the last time they faced Real Madrid, and although they are still leaders, the title race opened in Valdebebas. It’s one that includes Real now too. Not only because of the score, but also because of the script that this game followed. As for Zidane, there was more evidence here that the only reason to doubt him is that it is precisely that doubt, that danger, that brings out the best in his players.
On Saturday they did it again; Atlético had swept almost everyone else, winning eight of their 10 games, but against Real they only managed a single shot on goal. And if Real’s first goal was an act of simplicity, Casemiro jumped only to head in the corner of Toni Kroos, there was a logic in his advantage and in the victory he led. The derby was only 14 minutes away, but a pattern had already emerged and Real had taken control to which they never seemed to give in.
Oblak had already dived to disprove Karim Benzema, pushing his shot against the near post, and Atlético struggled for possession. In previous seasons that might not have mattered; This year, when the ball is a more integral part of his identity, he did. Now they had a new scenario to face: struggling to escape their own half, they were denied the room to breathe to choose a pass. After 914 minutes, Simeone’s team fell behind for the first time this season. Worse still, they were nearly two down shortly after, when Lucas Vázquez’s spear throw dodged Benzema at the far post.
“When we play like this no one can hurt us,” Benzema had said in the middle of the week and in the end Atlético couldn’t. Kroos sent the ball diagonally back and forth, opponents always a bit late to stop him, a percussive quality to his game in the silence of the Real’s empty training ground, a smooth elegance in the way he was imposed. Atlético seemed unable to find a foothold. Even at this early stage, Kroos had completed 23 passes; Koke only six.
Simeone reacted, switching to four. João Félix appeared briefly, a beautiful skill that carried him over the wing. But when an opportunity opened, the Portuguese was unable to let go of Luis Suárez running into space in the middle, and that also told a story: At half-time the heavy-legged Uruguayan had been able to complete just three passes. There were not many more of Koke or Marcos Llorente, so many times his engine. And when Felix left on time, he did so without being able to impact. When Suarez followed 10 minutes later, neither did he.
Even so late, after 70 minutes, Thibaut Courtois’s only intervention had been when he pushed a corner. If that was a shot, it was the only one in the first half. And when a genuine opportunity finally came in the second, Thomas Lemar hit the side net from three meters after Llorente threw the ball across the six meter area. The Frenchman put his hands to his head and Simeone looked up at the sky, unable to believe that Atlético’s first shot could be so ghastly.
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If this at least looked like it could be more of a competition now, it actually wasn’t, and that mistake was quickly punished. When the ball hit Carvajal from a half-clear free throw, he hit a bunt and then, on the rebound, slammed a 30-yard shot into the net through the post and Oblak’s back. Atlético had conceded two goals in 900 minutes before; In an hour, that number had doubled.
Two substitutes combined to create Atletico’s best chance with 10 minutes remaining, Saúl dove to head the center of Lodi, but Courtois was there, flying to face him, and this was already over. In every game, the Belgian makes a magnificent save; here was another. Some things, it seems, are unavoidable. And as easy as it is to say after the event, that Real Madrid win here, just when he and his coach seemed to be on the brink, is one of them.
