The match that was billed as a battle of the superheroes ended without a winner, all set up for a sequel instead. Kylian Mbappé and Julián Álvarez had looked out from Madrid’s front pages on the morning of the city derby, the media turning Marvel Comic, and they will probably be there on Sunday too but this isn’t over. The man they liken to a Mutant Turtle and the striker they call The Spider scored one each as another derby finished 1-1, leaving these two great rivals first and second in La Liga, a single point between them, left to fight another day.
Between them Mbappé and Álvarez had already scored 37 goals in their debut seasons; on a night that took a while to get going but did eventually become a real contest if certainly not a classic, they took that to 39. Atlético started in the ascendency then Real were revived.
Ultimately, though, neither delivered the decisive blow: there was no dramatic final scene, no epic end, just a title race getting ever tighter and a feeling that the real fights were put off for another day with a growing cast. A win on Sunday would leave Barcelona two points behind Real, one behind Atlético.
“This was a draw in which we will both feel we could have taken the points,” Diego Simeone said.
If Atlético started on the front foot, the first half was a slow burn; the visitors were in control but there was a caution about them. While Real had no shots on target by the break, Atlético had only one, although it was sufficient to give them the lead. It came when Javi Galán’s cross from the left ran through the area and Aurélien Tchouaméni put a leg out and trod on Samu Lino’s foot.
European roundup: Dortmund lose, Leverkusen held
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Borussia Dortmund slumped to a 2-1 home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and finished with 10 men in a disappointing first game as coach for Niko Kovac that dropped his team further away from the Bundesliga’s Champions League qualification spots.
Kovac took over after Dortmund sacked Nuri Sahin in late January. Last season’s Champions League finalists are on 29 points in 11th, while Stuttgart are on 35 in fourth, the last of the automatic Champions League qualification spots.
Stuttgart took an unexpected lead when the Dortmund defender Waldemar Anton turned a cutback into his own goal in the 50th minute. They doubled it with Jeff Chabot’s header at the far post just past the hour.
The hosts, who were dominant after the break, cut the deficit with Julian Brandt’s low drive from a tight angle in the 81st but their efforts to get an equaliser were derailed when the defender Julian Ryerson was sent off with a second booking.
Bayer Leverkusen stumbled to a goalless draw at Wolfsburg to drop eight points behind Bayern Munich, the leaders, though Xabi Alonso equalled the all-time coach record for the league’s longest unbeaten away run.
The Spaniard rotated heavily ahead of their ninth game in 26 days, leaving Florian Wirtz on the bench initially. The champions clearly missed his attacking spark as Wolfsburg got more shots on target. The hosts even hit the woodwork with Kilian Fischer’s powerful drive in the 74th and despite some late pressure and a golden chance in stoppage time by the substitute Wirtz, Leverkusen could not find a winner.
In Serie A, Sergio Conceição was pleased his decision to “gamble” by still going for a win when Milan were reduced to 10 men paid off against Empoli.
After a goalless first half, the Portuguese coach brought on attacking players Santiago Giménez, Rafael Leão and Christian Pulisic, before his side went down to 10 men with Fikayo Tomori’s second yellow card in the 55th minute. Empoli were also reduced following Luca Marianucci’s straight red card before Leão opened the scoring with a header off a Pulisic cross in the 68th minute and Giménez sealed the 2-0 win eight minutes later.
“The temptation at that moment [after the red card] was to take off a striker, to put in a defender, but I didn’t do it,” Conceicao told DAZN. “A draw here is like a defeat for Milan, so I had to take the gamble.”
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At first it had gone unseen but there was a pause as the referee, César Soto Grado, put his finger in his ear. It had looked light, a little lazy too, a leg put out for no real reason, but the contact was clear and when the referee eventually went to the screen, he decided it was enough. “People in football don’t understand this,” Carlo Ancelotti said.
From the spot, Álvarez clipped in the opener. Atlético tightened their control; the frustration might have been that it did not lead to more goals. It wasn’t so much that they were missing opportunities: there was no catalogue of chances and not one save from Thibaut Courtois; it was more that the positions they worked were then wasted, an imprecision in those key moments, the touch lacking when it was needed most. “We didn’t have the clarity we normally have,” Simeone said of a flaw they would not shake off all night and one they paid for.
The teams had gone off to a strange silence at half-time, maybe even a resignation, but when they came back out the noise levels soon rose and Real awoke.
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They equalised fast, Rodrygo setting up Jude Bellingham whose shot from close range was blocked but dropped to Mbappé to score. Next Bellingham hit the bar and then had another header saved by Jan Oblak. It was not just that this was a different game now; it was that it was a game, a derby the way it’s supposed to be, loud and open, a tension to it all. At least for a little while.
Vinícius Júnior and Mbappé had been activated, Rodrygo an even more significant threat. Bellingham led them forward. Atlético were under pressure but did find their way out at times, usually on the right. A pattern had been set: Real pressing, Atlético waiting to counter. Giuliano Simeone slipped when Álvarez set up a superb opportunity, Marcos Llorente’s pull back was cut out by Tchouaméni and Álvarez so nearly provided for Antoine Griezmann.
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At the other end, Dani Ceballos shot at Oblak, who also saved a Tchouaméni header, a Rodrygo strike and Vinícius’s effort. An Mbappé shot lacked the power of the run that preceded it and the momentum slowed a little. But with eight minutes left Vinícius escaped two lunges and clipped a ball to Rodrygo whose volley flew wide, that shot count up from zero to eight, and with a single minute to go it might have been nine and the victory. Fede Valverde dashed through and slipped in Mbappé. It hadn’t been the greatest of games, but here was the Turtle’s moment. Until in came another of this cast, Oblak flying at his feet to deny a comic book finale.
