People always say that for Real Madrid the derby is the match against Barcelona. For fans it might mean a lot if they win or lose against the islanders. Its more of a mainland was the the island team. But in every sense for Real Madrid the derby is against Atletico Madrid. They are their city rivals, the first leg of this derby was the Spanish la liga opening fixture for Real at their home turf and they won 2-1. Now its time to visit Vicente Calderon the home turf for Atletico Madrid, it was not going to be easy as Atletico are 4th in the league and have one of the most feared strike force including the likes of former Man U striker Forlan, wonder boy Agüero, former Liverpool striker Raul Garcia and former Real Madrid loan boy Jose Antonio Reyes.
Schuster made few changes from the team that lost at home in the second leg of the Kings cup and found themselves out of the tournament again. Pepe was doubtful but he indeed started partnering with Cannavaro, Torres and Ramos in the wings. The surprise entry was Guti who finally dislodged Baptista from Schuster's favorite list. With Diarra still away Gago still occupied the big space left by him and Sneijder played in the other linking role in midfield.
I got up at 9 AM my time on Sunday (pretty early by my standards) to see the 10 AM kick off, well am i on time, because Real required only 30 seconds or so to score their first goal. Robinho was on the left side of midfield close to the Atletico box, but was defended well by Pablo one of the center backs, but that was the only good thing he did, what was to follow would make any Manager furious. Pablo did not exactly know if he could pass it back to keeper Abbiati or had to put it away corner or shield it for a goal kick, there was only a second of indecision and Robinho stole the ball back and squared it in for Captain fantastico to score from a simple tap in. 0-1 Real Madrid. It was Raul's 11th goal against the city rivals.
Real Madrid then suffered a blow when Pepe had to be replaced. There was no straight switch possible as Schuster did not have any Center backs available. He brought in Salgado onto the right back role and of course it was Sergio Ramos to move into a CB role. Atletico came back full force at Casillas goal trying to nullify the shock Real Madrid lead. A brilliant save from Casillas saw Forlan's powerful shot saved. But it was not just Atletico's day as the Goal post, Casillas and the Real defense kept them out time after time.
Simao was replaced by Reyes through injury and he immediately linked up well with Agüero and he almost scored with a powerful shot but Casillas again made a spectacular save. Again it was Agüero who hit the bar just minutes later. It almost seemed as though it was a competition between the Atletico players to hit the Goal post, they just could not find the few inches below the Real goal post. From a corner set piece it was Motta who rose unmarked and headed it at Casillas goal. Again the Real Madrid goal post to the rescue.
At the 40' minute mark it was from a corner, Sneijder floated in a ball to the unmarked Van Nistelrooy at the far post and he volleyed in. It was not the perfect of shots and Abbiati seemingly had enough time to react and did get a hand on the shot but it did go in for the second goal of the night for the visitors. 0-2 Real Madrid.
Both teams took the pitch after half time with Atletico still looking the more confident and controlling possession but it was Real Madrid who created the chance first. It was Wesley Sneijder, the Dutchman making a good run after collecting a lose ball but it was shot did not match the quality of the approach play, as it was easily collected by Abbiati. Sneijder was playing a good game, as he helped out Gago in tracking back and defending and also in midfield was always passing first time as soon as he got the ball to release the forwards. There was some flair too in Sneijder's play today as he got into shooting positions in open play which is what he should try to do more as that his strength.
In one of my earlier blogs i had written about how Gago plays differently from Diarra in the fact he does a lot of covering on the wings, and that leaves him wrongly positioned. Well a week earlier he had mentioned in one of the interviews that he needs to improve on that and has to be more centrally positioned. He did exactly that against Atletico and i really feel he had a good game. If he has a good defensive game Gago is bound to have an exceptional game as he is far superior to Diarra when it gets to the Link play part and also joining the attack in counter attacks.
More attacks followed but Real Madrid's defense and Casillas did well to keep out each and every Atletico attack. Robinho screamed down the left wing in a sweeping counter attack move by Real and he passed a beautiful ball to Sneijder and his shot went wide of the near post. As in any away game, Real Madrid after going 2 goals ahead was mainly focusing on defending well and just playing some straight forward football by trying to hold on to the ball well and then counter attacking when possible. The game was ugly in the tackling department as the referee dished out a total of 8 yellow cards and was very fair in it as well, 4 each for both the teams.
There are certain key moments in a game, which could be the deciding factor of a match as such. In this case it was the Raul goal that was scored so early in the game. It just deflated Atletico and also made Real ever so confident in defending. Well yes Atletico did hit the bar a few times, but thats not how it should be? "Luck favors the brave....." Real still lead the La Liga by 7 points and is breaking records accross Europe as they have 50 pts from 20 games.Here are the match highlights:
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