Spanish Primera Division – Match Review: Real Madrid versus Atletico Madrid
Real Madrid Line up: Casillas; Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo; Khedira, Alonso; Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria; Higuain. Subs: Adan, Albiol, Arbeloa, Diarra, Granero, Pedro Leon, Benzema.
Atletico Madrid Line up: De Gea; Valera, Ujfalusi, Dominguez, Luis; Reyes, Tiago, Mario Suarez, Simao; Forlan, Aguero. Subs: Joel, Lopez, Camacho, Merida, Assuncao, Costa, Raul Garcia.
The match started off at a fast speed as in the 8th minute of the match, it was Cristiano Ronaldo who ran down the length of the field and then delivered a superbly timed cross into the path of Angel Di Maria, Maria’s shot
was spilled by De Gea as Sami Khedira pounced on the rebound to give Los Blancos the lead but his goal was ruled invalid as the linesman flagged for offside against the German midfielder. The Marcelo-Ronaldo combination down the left hand side of attack for
Real Madrid was prominent throughout the first half as both the tricksters combined effectively on several occasions much to the worry of Atletico Madrid’s defensive.
In the 11th minute of the match, Ricardo Carvalho became an unlikely hero for Real Madrid as Angel Di Maria’s through ball found its way to the onrushing defender via Ujfalusi. The Portuguese defender made no mistakes as
he finished the chance to give Real the lead as the score line turned in favour or the men in white as it stood at 1-0 in first fifteen minutes of the match. It was Carvalho’s second goal of the season.
In the 14th minute of the match, Gonzalo Higuain had a good chance to double Real Madrid’s lead but the Argentinean striker was denied his first goal of the match by De Gea who was again on top form as he pushed away the
centre forwards effort. Atletico soon had another chance to get their first goal of the match as in the 16th minute, Aguero’s cross almost found its way to Forlan. The pass was inches away from the Uruguayan striker as the opportunity went begging
yet again.
In the 18th minute of the match, Real Madrid doubled their lead as Mesut Ozil’s free kick was accurately struck into the bottom left hand corner of the Atletico Madrid goal. De Gea was left helpless as he misjudged the
free kicks trajectory much to the delight of the Real Madrid fans. The second goal really knocked the stuffing out of Atletico who looked dejected after being blitzed by Ozil’s curler.
In the 35th minute of the match, Casillas kept Real’s two goal lead in tact as he punched away Reyes’s shot from outside the Real Madrid penalty area. It was a brilliant save by the Spanish captain who surged through the
air acrobatically to deny Real’s rival a way back into the match. At the half time whistle, the score line stood still at 2-0 to Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid.
After the second half kicked off, Real Madrid were on the back foot right away as Atletico attacked in numbers. In the 60th minute of the match, Atletico almost pulled a goal back as Diego Forlan; the ex-Manchester United
striker struck the post with his close range shot. However, the ball thudded off the wood work to safety as Real Madrid were not made to pay for their slack defending. In the 62nd minute of the match, Madrid broke to build a fine counter attack
but Ozil’s shot in the end only resulted in a corner for the men in white. For most of the second half, Atletico were the dominant team as they looked as the more ambitious outfit due to the fact that they were trailing their city rivals by two goals.
On the other hand, Real Madrid were quite content to play in second gear as they conserved their energy for their up-coming games. In the 68th minute, Tiago made way for Raul Garcia for Atletico Madrid as Sanchez Flores
made his first change of the match. In the 82nd minute of the match, Carvalho was replaced by Raul Albiol; the Portuguese centre back was withdrawn due to a bad cut on his eye which he sustained in a challenge with Forlan. At the final whistle,
Real Madrid ended up as eventual winners by two goals. In doing so, they maintained their record of not having lost to their city rivals at the Santiago Bernabeau in over 22 years.
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