The 236th Madrid derby ended in dramatic fashion as Marcos Llorente’s (29) stoppage-time equaliser secured Atletico a draw and prevented Real Madrid from opening up a four-point gap at the La Liga summit.
As far as preparations go for a huge Madrid derby clash, Real’s couldn’t have gone much worse. Already plagued by injuries, largely in defence, Carlo Ancelotti must’ve been left fearing the worst when Vinicius Junior was forced to pull out of the starting XI after sustaining an injury in the warm-up.
That was certainly a blow, but Vinícius’ misfortune opened the door for Brahim Diaz to come into the XI and he repaid his boss’ faith early on, taking full advantage of a fortunate ricochet that allowed him to turn the ball home from six yards.
Falling behind didn’t particularly deter Atletico, who twice came close to hitting back straight away - both from set pieces - with Axel Witsel and Stefan Savic wasting good headed opportunities.
Swinging crosses into the box seemed to be the best avenue to success for Diego Simeone’s side, but the main problem for Los Colchoneros wasn’t creating chances, it was taking them, with Saul Niguez the latest in a growing line of Atletico players to spurn a glorious headed opportunity when he glanced wide despite being unmarked on the penalty spot.
Real hadn’t learned their lesson at the break and were soon picking the ball out the back of their net when Savic headed home from Antoine Griezmann’s corner. Fortunately for Los Blancos, Saul was impeding goalkeeper Andriy Lunin in an offside position, and VAR adjudged his impact was enough to prevent the Ukrainian from keeping the ball out of the net.
That decision seemed to take the wind out of Atleti's sails, and they were in fact fortunate to still be in the game heading into the final quarter when Brahim curled an effort inches wide of the target in what was a huge let-off for the visitors.
It certainly wasn’t lack of endeavour that saw Atletico fail to score, but beating Lunin was proving to be a difficult task, as Griezmann found out when his cute flick from Angel Correa’s cross was rebuffed by the Ukrainian.
Their near-relentless pressure eventually paid dividends in the 93rd minute when a bouncing ball in the area was headed home by Llorente to the dismay of the Blancos faithful, who had seen their side’s chances of stretching their lead over second-placed Girona go up in smoke.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Brahim Diaz (Real Madrid)