Atlético-Real Madrid Forgiving Madrid is not free

It was scare or death and it was neither one nor the other. And although the draw makes Atlético more happy, which does not kill, it leaves a better face for Madrid, which does not scare. The white team resigned from the League for an hour and a quarter, but his rival, superior in ambition, in aggressiveness, in positional play, in sacrifice, in auction and on the counter, forgot that Zidane is world record holder for resurrections. His younger brotherBenzema, the only goal keeper in the group, keeps the nail burning.

In the forecast derby, Zidane imagined that it was convenient to touch the neighbor's sides. Hence Rodrygo on the right, a decision surely linked to scouting: Chukwueze, a week ago, opened a hole on that flank that Hermoso barely defended. But Rodrygo was not Chukwueze. And on the other side was Asensio, this time with a natural band. Zidane will be the last to get off that ship. And it is understood. He is a footballer who manages so many records that the difficult thing is to explain why he has not just broken. The football on his feet is locked in his head. So the center of the field was reduced troika usual, Modric, Casemiro and Kroos, the livelihood of Madrid in times of glory and between the wars. With one more there he danced to Atlético in Valdebebas not so long ago.

On the other side, Simeone pulled instinctively. He likes the rebels, as he explained after receiving an impolite invitation to silence from João Félix, but he puts the others. To Lemar, on this occasion, who successfully continues his double journey: from the bench to the field, from the wing to the center. The line-up confirmed that the figure of the Argentine is far above that of any player, put whatever price you want. So Atlético was left with an orthodox eleven and a Versace bench.

An Atlético released

For lack of goal, for lack of confidence and for lack of points, Madrid has self-prescribed a contained, cautious game, in which security weighs more than adventure. A bit cholista, one might say. Hence, he handed the ball over to Atlético, who had less to lose but who understood that it was the day. There was not an easy way out for Zidane's team, whose midfielders were annulled and they were left in their minor cloths.

In that climate, of extreme red-and-white intensity and inexplicable galbana blanca, Luis Suárez's goal did not surprise him: Nacho miscalculated a long shipment to Llorente, which cleared the way of the former and his pass to the Uruguayan was dispatched by this with a shot with the outside as intelligent as it is unappealable. The game remained in the athletic paradise, which processes its advantages, however short, like no one else. In that first quarter of an hour, Simeone's team turned out that perfect gift that it was until a month ago.

Suárez, for all

Neither before nor after the goal did Madrid's state of necessity appear. He balanced the game somewhat due to inertia and because Atlético, better placed, more combative and more ambitious, changed the attack strategy: space appeared and its cons appeared.

Only one of Madrid was left in the initial record Benzema's botched header and Casemiro's long volley. No one has been in the area there for too long. And the arrivals, even in their best moments, do not give the points that are worth championships.

The double band (Trippier and Correa, Lemar and Carrasco) not only gave Atlético danger. He also closed the roads of the two sides of Madrid. And up there, Suarez was at all: he is not the fastest or the most muscular, but he is the most instinctive. Near the mid-break he caught another left-handed volley without power.

Round trip penalty

And before halftime, the mess. Felipe's hand in a jump, one of those that were penalties in the autumn and who knows how to go on the way to spring. For Hernández Hernández, below, nothing. For González González, above, a penalty. He sent the one below, after going to the monitor, in this salad of repeated surnames and unrepeatable criteria. More wood for sudoku and for Madrid's suspicions about the Canarian judge.

As nothing changed, or changed even worse (Courtois took goals from Carrasco and Luis Suárez), Zidane turned his attack around. Without Benzema, all three usually fall. With him, only his escorts. Before, Simeone had put the scissors in the center of the field, with Saúl for Lemar. Vinicius leads the emergency team and his influence depends on the size of the fire. The Wanda's was of great proportions. That tactical turmoil was a long time coming. Madrid played even worse than at the beginning and Atlético regretted not tying the tie to the game with better chances than in the first half.

Especially because as the minutes passed their arrivals were spaced by general exhaustion. João Félix, who arrived with the mission to supply the team near the finish line, turned out to be invisible. And then Madrid appeared. The matter began in Vinicius, who gave Benzema the first chance. He ran into Oblak twice. And at the third time, behind a wall with Casemiro, The Frenchman was right to leave Madrid alive in the League, although with assisted breathing.