The situation
In the Vinicius and João Félix derby, Rodrygo ended up dancing, that traveling striker who begins to take on the body of a starter wherever they put him. This invincible Madrid, which always finds someone to cling to, has many ways to win: in the Metropolitan he chose one of the least lucid, that of resistance. He put up with a highly motivated Atlético team, aided by Courtois, and finished it off with his greyhounds, Rodrygo, Vinicius and Valverde. Some call it a trade. It was his ninth consecutive victory of the course and the one that kept him in the lead. Simeone’s team was all heart, but, abandoned by João Félix and his aim, it was not even enough to draw. Ancelotti will also always have Paris. The best of May continue to seem to him the best in September and with them (or with those who remain in this case, after the departure of Casemiro and the withdrawal of Benzema) he goes to the real games. The same under their orders, Kroos and Modric, who have already lost count of their landings in Normandy. Simeone has fewer loyalties, but he came to the same conclusion as his Italian colleague: derbies are to throw the house out the window. And that at Atleti is to put Griezmann as a starter, even if it means walking on the coals of his purchase contract. The man of the last half hour in an hour and a half project with the most offensive version of the team around him: Llorente as right back in a defense of four, De Paul as fourth midfielder and João Félix as attacking partner. This is how this extremely hot derby was served. At 2′ Munuera Montero had to temper Simeone. At 3 ′ Valverde and Koke got hooked. Madrid intended to cool the matter from a possession without further pretensions. Atlético, with low pressure, tried to penalize any white loss and hovered over Tchouameni, the least accustomed to boilers like this. These were Casemiro’s games. That fiery Atlético, with the bravery of his coach, could not be stopped by Madrid. With the arm of a shipwrecked man, the white team was successively saved from a header by Felipe, from a shot by Carrasco deflected by Carvajal, from a semi-missed shot by João Félix after Courtois came out into the void, from a very distant left-footed shot from Kondogbia… That was the best athletic
samba to start
Madrid is something else. Theirs is a sustained resurrection. On the verge of capsizing, Valverde crossed the enemy line by opening gas. That unsettled Atlético and gave Tchouameni a second of calm to magnificently chip the ball to Rodrygo. Felipe failed in the cut and the white striker beat Oblak. In the area he loses the shyness that he has left over outside of it. Rodrygo went to the corner and ‘sambéo’ with Vinicius. Each goal of one or the other precedes a carnival that the Metropolitan, as expected, did not tolerate. He rained shrapnel on the party. That’s where another game began, in two directions, with Rodrygo, who is not a canonical nine, sowing confusion among the athletic center-backs. Munuera, down, and Iglesias, in Las Rozas, lacked the courage to kick Reinildo out for a very dangerous tackle, iron ahead, to the Brazilian striker . Simeone’s team maintained their enthusiasm, but lost order, a fatal mistake against a patient hunter like Madrid, who repeated the goal before the break. A Vinicius-Modric wall threw the Brazilian and no one could catch him. He sent his shot to the post and Valverde pushed the rebound into the net. El Pajarito has been a hawk for a week while Atlético mourned the losses of Savic and Giménez . Before and after that second goal, Madrid used their wild card again: Courtois. The Belgian stopped a great shot from Griezmann and another closer and less placed Carrasco.