After the headache that was the first edition of the Madrid Derby in the 2017/2018 season, here is a quick recap of the scoreless draw.
First Half
The first half was a wild, back and forth affair.
The match began with a clear-cut chance from Angel Correa for Atletico Madrid after two terrible giveaways from Marcelo and Raphael Varane set the striker in on goal against just the goalkeeper Kiko Casilla.
Correa pushed the chance wide in what would be the best chance of the match for the home side.
After a sloppy start defensively, Real Madrid gained momentum and confidence on both ends of the field. Real dominated possession and had several shots inside 20 minutes but many of them were blocked by the stingy Atleti defense who stayed very compact in their formation.
Los Blancos’ best chance of the half came on a great give and go between Ronaldo and Toni Kroos inside the Atleti box as Kroos narrowly missed the net while being fouled and dealing with pressure from Jan Oblak.
Also of note in the first half was Angel Correa blasting the ball into the head of Karim Benzema while he was laying on the ground after being fouled.
The biggest moment of the half came when Sergio Ramos attempted a diving header in the box, but received a kick to the face from left-back Lucas Hernandez.
This is not a card or a foul... pic.twitter.com/PznirTKWo2
— The Real Champs (@TheRealChampsFS) November 18, 2017
It was an egregious kick from Lucas and forced Ramos off at halftime with a broken nose as well as drawing concerns of a concussion.
Second Half
The start of the second half marked the beginning of Atletico not trying to play football, but trying to pick up as many yellow cards as possible without getting a player sent off.
In a period that spanned from the 63rd minute to the 89th, Atleti had five different players receive yellow cards and the team as a whole finished with 6 total. To go along with six yellow cards, they also committed 21 fouls to Real Madrid’s 6.
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Despite getting kicked in the face, cleated, stepped on, and shoved, Los Blancos continued to press looking for a decisive goal.
Ronaldo took a free-kick blast from about 40 yards out, forcing a save from Oblak, and Nacho and Varane did a good job shutting down Antoine Griezmann, Correa, and the substitutes, Fernando Torres and Yannick Carrasco.
Carrasco came close to breaking the stalemate as he went for a chip over Casilla, but Varane was quick to get back and head the shot on goal off the line.
Real Madrid brought on Marco Asensio midway through the half and, as usual, was consistent in helping to create chances and push the team forward with speed. I was very impressed with his performance as well as Isco and Marcelo linking up nicely on the left side of the formation all night.
Real Madrid finished the night with more total shots (14-7), more shots on target (3-1), more possession (65%-35%), and a better pass completion percentage (88%-79%).
Safe to say Real outplayed their rivals badly in the match, but just couldn’t seem to find the breakthrough goal. It was difficult, seeing that Atletico didn’t try to attack almost at all keeping 7 players in their defensive third nearly the entire match.
This is the first draw in the Madrid Derby in league play since 2005. With the draw, both Atleti and Real find themselves 10 points behind FC Barcelona who were able to get a win earlier today over Leganes, 3-0.
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