Actual Madrid 1-1 Atletico Madrid: Speaking factors as 10-men Rojiblancos survive Santiago Bernabeu
Actual Madrid and Atletico Madrid shared the spoils within the El Derbi Madrileño performed on the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday, throughout the twenty third spherical of the La Liga marketing campaign. For 77 minutes the sport remained goalless, however then, regardless of enjoying with 10 males after substitute Angel Correa earned a straight crimson card within the sixty fourth, the guests took the lead via a effective header by Jose Maria Gimenez. Nonetheless, 18-year-old Alvaro Rodriguez produced an equally good header of his personal to set the rating again degree with 5 minutes to go.
Alvaro Rodriguez
Actual Madrid have been credited with sturdy curiosity in Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham forward of the summer time switch window, however Italian switch knowledgeable Fabrizio Romano lately revealed that although the curiosity is real, a midfielder will not be a precedence for Los Blancos and they’re going to first look to signal a striker, a possible long-term successor to Karim Benzema.
Now, the emergence of Alvaro might have solved that exact concern for them already. The teenager, who nonetheless performs for Actual Madrid Castilla and Uruguay’s Below-20 facet, has performed solely twice within the Spanish prime flight for the senior Actual staff, and having booked an assists for Marco Asensio within the 92nd minute of their 0-2 win away to Osasuna final week, he delivered an much more necessary objective, his first-ever at this degree, to disclaim Atletico the bragging rights within the metropolis.
Standing 6’4” tall, Alvaro packs loads of tempo and positional consciousness, and all of those traits got here to gentle as he cleverly took benefit of Benzema and Aurelien Tchouameni working forward and pulling Atletico’s defensive position with them to leap into the air and put his finest effort right into a free header which bounced off the bottom and off the put up earlier than moving into, leaving Jan Oblak powerless to cease it.
The cross which got here from a nook on the left was a superb piece of veteran Luka Modric, who assisted Eder Militao in an identical method in Actual’s 2-5 thumping of Liverpool at Anfield earlier this week.
In his post-match press convention, head coach Carlo Ancelotti mentioned he anticipated Alvaro to play for his staff extra commonly subsequent season and promised to talk to Castilla coach Raul Gonzalez on the topic.
The title race
However whereas Alvaro’s objective, coupled with the early pleasure of avoiding what had seemed like a possible defeat, introduced smiles to the faces of everybody at Actual Madrid, the truth that their failure to beat their neighbours at house has given arch-rivals Barcelona an opportunity to extend their lead on the prime of the desk to 10 factors has hit arguably even more durable. The Catalans play away to Nineteenth-place Almeria on Sunday night, and a win would take them to a tally of 62 factors, whereas Actual sit on 52.
Ancelotti promised his staff wouldn’t hand over on the La Liga title simply but, but when the hole goes to 10, the time might be for Actual to relinquish the a part of their plan regarding the league title defence and focus extra totally on the hunt for the fifteenth Champions League trophy.
As for Atletico, it’s an necessary end result which has stored them two factors forward of fifth-place Actual Betis, and one lower than Actual Sociedad in third. A prime 4 end appears completely achievable, provided that the home league is the one entrance left for them to struggle on this season.
The crimson card
There was, in fact, loads of anger on the choice of referee Jesus Gil to ship Correa straight off from the Atletico gamers, in addition to head coach Diego Simeone, however a more in-depth have a look at the incident reveals very clearly that the substitute attacker had the truth is, identical to Gil claimed, aimed a deliberate elbow blow to the chest of Actual defender Antonio Rudiger.
Rudiger is under no circumstances a participant bodily weak and as Simeone tried to level out, he’s a lot greater than Correa. The ache the blow triggered was in all probability considerably lower than the Germany worldwide made it out to be, however the intention of Correa to hit him can’t be disputed and the crimson card was certainly the proper name.
Pablo Barrios
Alvaro wasn’t the one teenager that caught the attention on this derby. Within the absence of World Cup winner Rodrigo De Paul, Simeone began 19-year-old Pablo Barrios in the course of the park.
Barrios put in a effective efficiency all through, ceaselessly inflicting issues for Actual in both half of the pitch, and even dancing with the ball fairly dangerously into their field on just a few events. Simeone’s choice to go away him within the dressing room after the break was a purely tactical one, with the Argentinian coach wishing to supply ahead Antoine Griezmann with some assist upfront and sending Correa on in Barrios’s place. It clearly backfired lower than 20 minutes later.
Barely extra skilled than Alvaro, Barrios already has eight La Liga video games and one within the Champions League beneath his belt, however each of his targets thus far got here within the 4 Copa del Rey matches he’s performed. Similar to Alvaro, he’s a reputation to be watched within the coming years.
The Actual midfield
There was a second on this match which made all the facility of a membership like Actual Madrid clear for everybody to see. Within the 63rd minute, Ancelotti withdrew the trio of Toni Kroos, Dani Ceballos and Asensio, changing them with Luka Modric, Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga. The three newcomers took the center of the park for themselves, whereas Fede Valverde made his solution to the proper facet of the attacking line.
As has been mentioned, Actual don’t see strengthening their midfield part as a precedence this summer time and don’t think about themselves as favourutes to land Bellingham, and this triple substitution confirmed why. However as Romano himself identified, issues might but change if, on the finish of the season, each Kroos and Modric determine to not lengthen their contracts.
