Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will have to focus their attention back on La Liga this weekend, but it will be difficult for the mind not to wander onto the second leg of their Champions League derby next week. Los Blancos take a 2-1 lead to the Metropolitano, and seemed happy with their showing, while Los Rojiblancos feel that by correcting their mistakes, they can do damage to their rivals.
Raul Asencio was handed a starting berth alongside Antonio Rudiger for Real Madrid, replacing David Alaba in the backline. He was of the opinion that Atletico do much to be concerned about.
“We are entering a Champions League phase in which all the matches will be decided by small details. We knew about Atletico’s quality, but we did a great job dominating from start to finish. We are left with the good individual performances we had,” he told Real Madrid, as quoted by MD.
🚨 Josema Giménez: “My message to the fans? Thank you for how you made us feel today. Honestly, it felt like we were playing at home. We could hear our fans the whole time, and in the second leg, we’re going to need that again.” pic.twitter.com/gBbTt0cjNQ
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) March 5, 2025
“Both goals – Rodrygo and Brahim – have helped the team. I’ll focus with that. They were goals at key moments and they gave us extra motivation to continue facing the different situations that arose in the game. They came at very opportune moments.”
He also addressed his current state of mind, after being removed by Carlo Ancelotti last week at half-time against Real Sociedad. The Italian said he was affected by chants of ‘Asencio, die’.
“I feel very, very good on a day-to-day basis. I feel very comfortable facing these types of matches. I am surrounded by good people, I thank my teammates and the coaching staff for everything they do for me. I hope it continues like this for a long time.”
The star of the night was Brahim Diaz, whose magical second half goal won the game for Real Madrid. He said he ‘could not remember’ speaking to the Atletico Madrid bench in his pointed celebration thereafter.
“A goal here is always something incredible because when you wear this shirt, you always have to give it your all. We played a complete match. My goal is enough but we still have to give it our all in the return leg. We dropped a bit, but things changed in the second half. At any moment, one of us can tip things on their head and that’s what we’ve seen. Another magical night at the Bernabeu.”
“Everything is still open; it’s good to have won at home but there’s a difficult match ahead for us. This one isn’t over yet, there’s the return leg and we have to give it our all there. This is the Champions League and every little thing makes the difference.”
Meanwhile from the Atletico Madrid perspective, Clement Lenglet was disappointed, yet believed that they had a good understanding of how to hurt Los Blancos.
“Right after the match there was a bit of disappointment because we wanted more than just a 2-1 defeat. Lenglet explained after the game. “But also seeing the game, we have seen that we are capable of doing a lot of damage to this team, of understanding well when we have to have possession, when we have to attack, when we have to defend, when we have to drop deeper, and well, the return leg is going to be a demanding match again, but this does not end today.”
❝Queda la vuelta, que será muy exigente, pero esto no acaba hoy❞.
— Lenglet 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/KDSSKI7aYk
— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) March 4, 2025
Marcos Llorente similarly emphasized the message on correcting Atletico’s mistakes above all.
“The feeling that the second leg is still to come, that we are alive and we have to correct the mistakes we have made and go for the second leg. There are 90 minutes left at home with our people and we are looking forward to it. They are very fast and very good, any half mistake you make…”
“They are very good and we have to be as focused as possible and try to make sure that those details don’t happen again, being closer together, constantly watching each other and talking to each other a lot. In games like this the big teams appear and Julian has scored a goal out of nowhere and I hope he continues at this level, which is very high,” he told Movistar+ (via Marca).
Los Colchoneros got back level in the first half through a wondergoal from Julian Alvarez. He felt that the timing of Real Madrid’s goals were decisive in the game.
“They scored at the right times, we conceded very quickly, then we equalised, we had control of the match and the game, but they are on their pitch and they have great players, but we know that there are 90 minutes left,” he told Movistar+, also quoted by Marca.
“The goal was good, it was good to tie the game and we had chances to score, now we have a game at the weekend and we have to think about that. Then there are 90 minutes at home with our people.”
Atletico Madrid now head to face Getafe in a local derby at the weekend, as La Liga’s two best defences face off in a tricky away tie. Real Madrid are hosting Rayo Vallecano in another local clash, but they have been far from an easy opponent for Real Madrid in recent years, the two playing out a 3-3 draw earlier this season. It would be no surprise to see a degree of rotation for the second legs either.
