5 Things we learned from Atletico Madrid’s derby day win over Real Madrid

1. The controversy never stops with Real Madrid. I’ll talk about the VAR decisions by themselves later on but I want to give the game the respect it deserves first of all before I go into what everyone is going to be talking about, the first half was one of few chances which hasn’t been the case so far in Real Madrid matches but we got our first flashpoint ten minutes before the end of the half as Romero went steaming into a challenge with Bellingham which looked quite nasty but the referee booked both players as it was a 50/50 challenge. The referee was brought to the monior where he cancelled the Bellingham yellow and kept Romero’s yellow for the tackle, definitely an interesting call. Simeone changed to a back four at half-time and it paid off almost immediately as Hancko played a brilliant long ball over the Madrid back-line to Giuliano Simeone who was then pulled back in the box by Dean Huijsen giving the ref no choice but to give the penalty, the interesting part was that the ref gave Huijsen a yellow card initially but quickly changed his decision to a red upon review as Huijsen didn’t make an attempt for the ball. Alejandro Grimaldo stepped up and slotted the penalty past Courtois to give Atleti the lead right at the start of the second half, the red card clearly spurred on Simeone’s side who were banging on the door for the second goal and just six minutes after the first doubled the lead as Giuliano Simeone played a scintillating ball across the box for Jonathan David who slid and made it 2-0 to Atletico Madrid. It was always going to be an uphill battle for Mourinho’s side down to 10-men at the Metropolitano but they did get one back in the 89th minute as Bernardo Silva’s free-kick found the head of Antonio Rudiger who gave Madrid a lifeline with added time left to play, unfortunately for them they were up against Diego Simeone who made sure they didn’t create another chance and saw out a crucial three points in the derby.

2. That’s a statement win from Atletico Madrid. It’s a shame that it will probably get overshadowed by the VAR controversy but we saw last week in the Manchester derby that it’s not a free win if the opposition goes down to 10-men, obviously it helps if you get a penalty as well but Atleti could have easily scored 4 or 5 goals today if they were more clinical. I did worry for them pre-match due the injuries they are currently suffering with Alvarez, Barrios, Lookman etc all not starting but they proved me wrong and were well worthy of the win in the end, the decision to switch to a back four at half-time was genius from Simeone even if it did raise eyebrows taking Pubill off but it paid off as Hancko’s elite long-range passing led to the penalty and red card which ultimately won Atleti the game. Although you could argue he could have been sent off Cristian Romero was made to play for Atletico Madrid at the centre of defence and yet again showed why today keeping the Real Madrid attackers quiet for the full game which no other team has managed so far this season, Jonathan David has had a brilliant start to life in Madrid with three goals and an assist in 160 minutes which is some going for a player that was shipped off by Juventus in the summer. It was pretty obvious in the summer but Kang-In Lee has been a superb signing for Atletico Madrid and again was very lucky to stay on the pitch but his quality on the ball is undeniable and he’s an absolute joy to watch playing football in this team under Simeone, overall a win against your biggest rivals right before a three week international break is exactly what Diego Simeone would have wanted and that’s exactlt what he got. Could a title challenge be on the cards for Atletico Madrid this season? Not with the way Barcelona are playing.

3. I have no idea what to make of Real Madrid. There’s times when I’ve watched them play this season and thought to myself, “ this is the best version of Madrid I’ve seen for a few years”, then in other games I’ve said to myself, “ this team isn’t winning anything major once again this season.” Both things can be true I suppose but once again the frailties are on show for everyone to see this season, the abscence of a world-class holding midfielder is holding this team back massively and you can’t help but think just what a difference Rodri would have made to this team but it’s too late now. This means you can’t rely on controlling possession so they’ve resorted to basketball matches which have had varying degrees of success so far this season, this was the first game so far this season that they didn’t create an abundance of clear-cut chances so you’re relying on your defence to get out of there with a draw. Huijsen obviously makes a schoolboy error for the red card pulling Giuliano Simeone to the floor and from there Mourinho’s side were finished, Vinicius Junior was sacrificed for Rudiger which was completely understandable as the Brazilian once again was a compete non-entity on the left-wing as he’s been most of the season but it left Mbappe by himself up front which was far from ideal for Real Madrid. Bellingham was once again Madrid’s best player but I still don’t think we are seeing his best version as he’s doing the running of three players in midfield which is taking away his best qualities, overall it’s a really damaging defeat for Real Madrid right before the international break which puts them six points behind Barcelona already. Is the La Liga title race over before it even starts? It just might be.

4. What did the referee get right and wrong today? All right lets get into it as I’m sure this is what every Madrid fan will be talking about over the next three weeks and I’ll do it in chronological order, the first flashpoint was Romero and Bellingham challenging for the ball with the Englishman sliding in whilst Romero tries to pass the ball with the Argentinians foot colliding with Bellingham’s knee. In my opinion I think the referee got this one right as Romero isn’t expecting Bellingham to slide in and he has nowhere else to put his foot after challenging for the ball despite how bad the replay looks in slow-motion, next up is the worst one in my opnion with Kang-In Lee stamping right down on Valverde’s ankle just before half-time with the referee not even issuing the South Korean a card for the tackle. The challenge is a horrific one upon replay and quite clearly should have been a red card, it’s hard to blame the referee as he wasn’t even sent to the monitor so I’m looking at the VAR for this one. Most certainly an error on their part, next up is the penalty and red card which I think the referee got right in the end after going to the monitor. For double jeopardy to come into play the defender has to make an attempt for the ball which Huijsen doesn’t do so it’s clearly a red card, for me the VAR and referee made one mistake today which was not giving Kang-In Lee a red card but you probably could make the argument there were other decisions they got wrong. Lets hope I don’t have to do this again as I hate talking about refereeing decisions but it was needed for this game, I wonder what Mourinho will say in the the post-match press conference?

5. Where does this result leave both teams? The win catapults Atletico Madrid up to 2nd place and takes them 5 points behind Barcelona who have won 7 from 7 to kickoff the La Liga season, Real Madrid remain in 4th place but I fear that six points is already too many to make up against Hansi Flick’s Barcelona who are simply unstoppable at the minute. I think the international break comes at a good time for Mourinho and Madrid as it might halt Barcelona’s momentum with El Clasico coming up at the end of October, I know it’s early in the season but that’s a game Madrid simply have to win if they want to fight for the title this season. I’ll have a review of their season so far coming up in the international break so stay tuned for that over the next couple of weeks.