AFTER EXTRA TIME
It was an AET game and an AET result.
It wasn\’t the poor club being hammered 4-1 by a rich club.
It was 1-0 up to the 93rd minute and then Sergio Ramos scored a stunning header.
A very tight game where the first three goals were headers.
It wasn\’t really 4-1 scoreline, it was an AET scoreline.
AET tells you that the score after 90 was either 0-0 or 1-1.
Atletico ran out of bodies, ran out of legs, ran out of subs.
It was a game too far, as we all suspected.
All season I\’ve been writing about alpha male gladiators (Real) and a hard-grafting tactical unit (Atletico).
Credit Simeone\’s men for making a close game of it after Diego Costa had to go off after 9 minutes. Pepe hadn\’t started, Varane came in. Bale missed the best chance of the first half in 32 and three minutes later a corner was cleared, Godin won the second ball, heading it forward .
Casillas came, then stopped..…. and the ball looped over him.
IF YOU COME, DON’T STOP!
It was a derby where Atletico were winning all the duels.
Real resident Florentino Perez, the architect of the galactico strategy, has never looked so old and glum.
Simeone\’s heroes made the ball look magnetic, as if the ball was pulling red and white shirts towards it.
Atletico led 1-0 at half-time and ITV pundit Lee Dixon said Atletico just let right back Carvajal have the ball and marked everybody else tightly.
Sky\’s Gary Neville said in commentary that skipper Gabi was the Man of the Match at 60 minutes.
Teamwork was beating superstars.
A team that cost £30 million was beating a team that cost £330 million by 1-0.
COULD THEY HOLD ON?
Marcelo and Isco had come on for Coentrao and Khedira in 59.
Marcelo, an ebullient playmaking left back, then took the game over, powering forward but taking his time to pick his passes.
By then Atletico could not run any more. They’d hit a brick wall.
When Modric flighted a perfect corner, Ramos sent a power header bouncing inside the post to secure extra time.
After 20 of extra time, a Di Maria shot squirted off the boot of Courtois to the far post where Bale did well to control his header for 2-1.
Then Marcelo charged through to make it 3-1.
Ronaldo had been absolutely rubbish all whole match but when defender Godin clipped him in the box, the most super of superstars got up to take a very good penalty and ripped his shirt off to pose for the cameras.
Verdict: Diego Simeone ran out of bodies and legs.
Atletico only won La Liga.
Madrid versus Madrid was three headers a penalty and a shot by Marcelo, who dominated the second hour.
Marcelo turned the game, made the difference.
In 2020, if you can\’t remember the details of the Madrid derby in Lisbon 2014, just remember the capital letters in brackets at the end.
AET tells the true story, not the four goals.
In extra time, the £330m team beat the £30m team.
Real Madrid 4 Atletico Madrid 1 (AET)
BTW: The Diego Costa deal was done three months ago.
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Casillas; Carvajal, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Fabio Coentrao (Marcelo, 59); Modric, Khedira (Isco, 59), Di Maria; Bale, Benzema (Morata, 79); Ronaldo.
Atletico Madrid (4-4-2): Courtois; Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Filipe Luis (Alderweireld, 83); Raul Garcia (Sosa, 66), Gabi Tiago, Koke; Villa, Diego Costa (Adrian, 9).
Referee: Björn Kuipers (Holland).
27th May 2014