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MOTD- Real Madrid 3-0 Atletico Madrid

By on February 5, 2014

Real Madrid have been beginning to become a slight bit afraid, or at least more wary, of the Madrid derby against cross-town rivals Atletico, but after two defeats, one of them in the Copa del Rey final, in the two club’s last two meetings Real have finally avenged their pain.  To manager Carlo Ancelotti’s delight, they also did it in relative style, or at least as good as you can get in a bloody derby match.  Although it was only 1-0 nearing the hour mark by the end it looked much better for Los Blancos, who will all but be on their way to the Copa del Rey final with the win, barring a miracle in the second leg of the tie.

To make it even more thrilling neither side came into the match win any intention of sitting back in a Jose Mourinho-esque style, a pretty obvious thing by the time Arda Turan headed the first half-chance towards the bottom corner, where Iker Casillas palmed it away, twelve minutes in.  Yet when Madrid took the lead only seventeen minutes in it was still rather unexpected.  However, it did take a lot of luck, as Angel di Maria turned by two Atletico defenders before playing a square ball into the run of Pepe, who, surging forward from the back, took one touch to set up a shot, which he whacked off the leg of Emiliano Insua, wrong-footing Thibaut Courtois and bouncing into the inside side netting.

Real began to gain the slight upper hand, with Luka Modric’s dipping volley from the edge of the box causing some trouble for Courtois, and Cristiano Ronaldo, celebrating his twenty-ninth birthday, poked a weak effort at the on-loan goalkeeper six minutes into the second half.  There was still a hair-raising sense that Atletico would find an equalizer, but the home side suddenly shut down that feeling when Di Maria cut in from the left, slipped an inch-perfect ball into the brilliant diagonal run of Jese down the left side of the box where the youngster poked a cute effort under the diving arms of Courtois to double the Real’s lead.

Yet Atletico were still driven by the hope that they might snatch a vital away goal, and as the clock began to tick down the visitor’s intensity made for some interesting battles.  Juanfran was constantly grappling at Sergio Ramos’ face while Pepe couldn’t stop winding up Atletico players, namely Diego Costa, but that didn’t stop Diego Simeone’s men from nearly finding grabbing one goal back.  Diego Godin, and everybody else watching, actually thought the defender had headed in a corner from the right, only for Modric to somehow stick out a leg to clear it off the line.

That clearance might have also been the sealing of the victory for Madrid, who found a third moments later in the seventy-third minutes as Di Maria’s low long-range shot took a wicked deflection off the leg of Miranda to steer another deflected effort past Courtois, capping off the night with more Madrid glory.  Simeone has said post-match that he still remains optimistic that Atletico can turn the tie around, but after tonight, it would have to be a miracle for the comeback to be pulled off.

I think Real Madrid played very well, but they scored twice with shots that hit our players on the body and went in.

It is a very favorable result for the opponent, but apart from that there is nothing I can draw from the game at the moment.

We still have 90 minutes to play and anything can happen in football.

Man of the Match: Angel di Maria

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.