Real Madrid and Atletico drew 1-1 in the Madrid derby on Sunday in the eighth round of La Liga, a duel that was marred by the throwing of objects at the Metropolitano stadium, which forced the referee to stop the match for ten minutes.
With Barcelona dropping their first points of the season on Saturday in Pamplona (4-2), the derby was the perfect opportunity to close the gap. They did not take full advantage of it and Real Madrid are now three points behind and Atletico five behind.
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The Metropolitano, which filled its 70,000 seats – a record attendance – welcomed its team with a mosaic that completely covered its stands and a slogan ‘Until the end of my days’. The party was ruined after the goal by Los Blancos and the subsequent shower of objects.
The Brazilian centre-back Militao (64) had scored, a goal equalized by the Argentine Angel Correa in stoppage time (90+5).
Without Kylian Mbappe, who was out of his first derby due to injury, Carlo Ancelotti did not give the 18-year-old Brazilian prodigy Endrick a chance in the starting eleven. He preferred to reinforce his midfield with Luka Modric -39 years old- and let Jude Bellingham move closer to the opposition box along with Vinicius and Rodrygo.
The match started with pace and both goalkeepers showed their hierarchy. Thibaut Courtois appeared before Julian Alvarez, a bullet from the left (9), and Jan Oblak flew to clear a shot from Federico Valverde (17).
Already in the second half, with the game tied and when none of the stars made the difference, an unexpected hero appeared Militao, with quick control and an accurate shot from the edge of the six-yard box, taking advantage of a Vinicius pass.
After the goal, the embarrassment came. The referee had to stop the match because the ultras started throwing objects, including bottles and lighters, at Courtois from one of the ends of the pitch.
The players went to the changing rooms ten minutes later and the Atletico coach Diego Simeone, the captain Koke, and Jose Maria Jimenez held a conversation with some of the fans to ask them to calm down.
After the restart (68) Vinicius was close to ‘killing’ the duel after winning the position from Jimenez and shooting with power, but Oblak saved his team (73).
At the start of the derby, Courtois responded to his colleague with a slap after a great shot from Samuel Lino (82).
Four minutes later Endrick came on. He had a counterattack to score, but his shot went wide of one of the posts. The rival substitute, Correa, scored lethal after a service from Javi Galan.
In the first match of the day, Girona (12th), the great revelation of last season, let the victory slip away (1-1) on the court of Celta (10th), who equalized in the 81st minute with a goal from the tireless Iago Aspas, aged 37.
The Venezuelan Yangel Herrera (38) had put the Catalan team ahead.
In addition, Sevilla (13th) drew (1-1) at San Mames against Athletic (4th) thanks to an own goal by goalkeeper Álex Padilla (90+3) who had just come onto the field after Julen Agirrezabala was sent off.
Finally, a goal from the Argentine Giovanni Lo Celso (85) gave Betis (8th) the victory over Espanyol (17th). The Argentine international has had an affair with the opposing goal at the start of this season and has scored five goals in five games.
