If the Madrid Trilogy is to end as it began, II. and III. The episodes will have to be very, very special. Not content with facing each other three times in three competitions and three weeks, Atlético and Real decided to play for another half hour just for fun and scored three goals each to send their sixth consecutive derby knockout tie into extra time. There, a wild and wonderful game finally came to an end when Brahim Díaz fired the ball into the empty net as Atlético goalkeeper Jan Oblak made one final throw, 4-3 down. He took his teammates onto the field in the 121st minute and sent them to the final of the Spanish Super Cup.
It was a finale befitting a wild occasion: a match full of entertainment and eight goals, two truly excellent, two truly very stupid. Most were not fully scored by the usual suspects. Of course, Antoine Griezmann got the best of him in overtaking Luis Aragonés as Atlético’s all-time leading scorer, but not many could have predicted that defenders Mario Hermoso, Toni Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal would score goals. Or own goals from Kepa Arrizabalaga and Stefan Savic, the latter of which will eventually buy Real extra time and set them up for success. Only.
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Ultimately, there were 30 shots in the first match between these two teams, which will meet next week in the Copa del Rey and in the league at the beginning of February, and 1-0 to Atletico, 2-1 to Real, 3-0 to Real. passed to . 2 Atletico to 5-3 Real. It wasn’t over for sure until the final moment when Díaz stood there with his shirt off as a substitute and everyone tried to figure out what had happened. The answer was a little bit of everything except defense. Everyone was exhausted by the end, but the technique was outstanding for most of the game; If facilitated by both sides wanting to enjoy it more, possibly more than the next two teams in Spain.
It was there from the start, especially in the move leading up to the opening goal: built up deep in one half and finished in the other, it went from Koke to the outstanding Rodrigo de Paul, to Griezmann and then to Samuel Lino. the curler was pushed wide by Kepa. Hermoso was alone from the corner taken by Griezmann and put Atlético ahead. They did it again when Real boxed Atlético soon after, this time from their own left corner to Real’s left post, where Marcos Llorente’s ball found Álvaro Morata and his shot hit the side netting.
Real were struggling to contain these early stages, but Atletico knew they refused to fold and they soon took the lead. Jude Bellingham had a different shot and Rüdiger’s header from the corner was almost a copy. HE A moment from the European Cup final in Lisbon, ten years ago now but always present. In fact, the person who bought it was the same man: Luka Modric.
It was Rüdiger’s second in a row to score, and Real’s third consecutive goal from a corner, but this streak did not last long. While this may have felt routine, it certainly wasn’t: a cleverly practiced move that put his side ahead with a subtle flick of Mendy’s wrist. The crowd in Riyadh, where Real was the home team 5,000 km away, chanted, “This is how Madrid wins.” But that’s not what you’d most expect from the French full-back.
It was a good goal, worthy of what was going on – the lack of technical tension the match created – and what followed was even better. Griezmann sent Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rüdiger and especially Modric the wrong way with a spectacularly rebounding turn that magically revealed space that had not even been there for a second before. Stepping into the goal, the player fired a right-footed shot past Kepa from the edge of the penalty area, took the ball out of the net and handed it to Diego Simeone for safe keeping. After all, it was his 164th goal for Atletico – more than anyone else at the moment – and he equalized in the semi-finals.
The fantasy of another moment soon unfolded when Rodrygo left José María Giménez on the ground with a weight shift as quick and feet-fast as the Frenchman’s. Oblak was also falling the other way, but somehow he saved it with his legs and gratefully caught the ball that looked like it was going to go over the line. It was the 14th shot of a hugely enjoyable first half, nine of which found the target, and as the second started Lino curled another very small shot wide of the post. Carvajal was then released by a quickly taken free kick from Vinícius, who probably should have scored at the other end only for Oblak to block his volley from close range.
By then the noise had grown: Toni Kroos, who said Saudi Arabia’s human rights record was the reason he never moved to the country, was booed every time he picked up the ball.
Even if the game slowed down, the drama would also increase. Atlético took the lead again with a strange and funny goal in the last 12 minutes. Kepa dived over Morata to try to deliver a cross but all he did was deflect it towards Rüdiger’s leg and send it back into the net. The goalkeeper complained that he had been fouled, but this was the reaction of an embarrassed man grasping the straws and he failed to catch them.
Fortunately he was rescued. With six minutes remaining, Vinícius approached the left and raced towards the area. Oblak saved his first shot, Savic blocked Bellingham’s follow-on, Hermoso cleared Bellingham’s second shot off the line but Carvajal quickly slotted the ball in to make it 3-3. Brahim almost scored the winner in the 91st minute with a superb pass past Hermoso, but his shot went wide and sent another derby into extra time, where he created a similar moment for Ángel Correa’s puppet Atlético.
Atlético now looked exhausted and had nothing to do but try and fail to hold on. The way this happened was cruel and a bit stupid; Savic’s intervention bounced off his goalkeeper and into the net with four minutes remaining and penalties were approaching. Griezmann then bent just past the post. As the last minute approached, Atlético chased and Oblak followed. Forced to turn back and follow him, he watched Brahim Díaz escape, using his last chances.