Atletico Madrid 1-1 Real Madrid
An 88th-minute goal converted by Karim Benzema gave Real Madrid a share of the spoils at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium to keep their La Liga title hopes alive.
This huge clash, La Liga: Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid, was a chance for Los Rojiblancos to put some distance between them and their city rivals, and they had the perfect start when Luis Suarez gave them a 15th-minute lead. But Benzema popped up with a late, late show to peg the league leaders back.
The Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid highlights tells a story of a wide-open game with chances at both ends. Los Rojiblancos will be disappointed not to have held on, though Real remain five points off the pace and have played a game more than Diego Simeone’s men.
Luis Suarez celebrates with Atletico Madrid teammates after scoring their opening goal against Real Madrid
Highlights of the game
The hosts got off to a flying start and the Los Blancos defence had to be on their game from the first whistle to block an effort from Koke and then a fierce shot from Suarez.
Young striker Joao Felix climbed off the bench to score a crucial goal in Atleti’s victory over Villarreal last week and he had to settle for a seat again at the beginning of this game as Diego Simeone started with Suarez and Marcos Llorente upfront. It’s a tried and tested pair and it produced once more with just a quarter of an hour on the clock when Llorente teed up Suarez for his 17th goal of the season and his own sixth assist.
Real responded as expected and Karim Benzema, back from injury, rose to meet a cross from Casemiro but his header drifted wide of Jan Oblak’s post. Benzema then picked up a cross from Marco Asensio and fired just wide. Midfielder Luka Modric was the next to try his luck with a long-range effort but he got underneath his shot and it flew over.
Casemiro brought a save out of Oblak with a long-range effort then, as Atleti began to fight back, Thibaut Courtois had to be alert to stop an angled drive from Suarez.
The second half saw the action continue to swing from end to end and Atleti almost doubled their lead early on when Suarez set up Yannick Carrasco whose shot was saved by Courtois in the bottom right corner. Real Madrid’s Nacho had a header from close range saved and then Angel Correa came close for Atleti with a left-foot effort which whistled narrowly wide.
Felix made an appearance with a quarter of the game remaining and his first act was to carve out an opening for Suarez for Courtois to save in the bottom corner.
Real pushed again and Vinicius Junior fired a shot narrowly wide and then Raphael Varane joined the attack and had his shot saved by Oblak. Benzema missed a good chance with ten minutes remaining and as the game became stretched Felix earned a yellow card when he chopped down Ferland Mendy, but Oblak saved Benzema’s dead ball kick.
Then, when Atleti looked to have three crucial points in the bag, Benzema found space in the penalty area and kept his cool to smash the equaliser home and his 13th goal of the season.
Key statistics
The Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid betting odds here at SBOTOP offered 2.97 on the draw and in the end it as a fair result.
The half time stats gave Los Blancos the edge in terns of possession (53 per cent) and shots at six to four, but Atleti were more incisive with two shots on target to Real’s one.
Zinedine Zidane’s side turned things around after the break, eventually winning the shot count by 18 to 11 and deserved their late leveller.
What’s next?
Barcelona’s victory away to Osasuna on Saturday reduced the gap at the top of La Liga to two points and, now just three behind this was the perfect result for the Blaugrana.
So the title race is well and truly on. Next up Los Rojiblancos are at home to Athletic Bilbao in midweek before taking a trip to Getafe.
Real Madrid are at home to Elche, and then they have a Champions League Round of 16 tie against Atalanta to complete. They hold a slender 1-0 lead which is unlikely to be enough to hold off the free-scoring Italians.
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