Real Madrid 2-1 Atletico Madrid: Valverde and Rodrygo goals send Xabi Alonso’s side past tenacious local rivals
It was always meant to be. A repeat of last season’s clásico Spanish Super Cup final was set up by Real Madrid on Thursday with a 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid in Saudi Arabia.
Not that it was easy. Federico Valverde’s stunning early freekick gave Xabi Alonso’s side the lead, and they remained ahead even after Rodrygo’s second was cancelled out by Alexander Sorloth, but by the end Madrid were desperately clinging on while Atletico peppered their goal in search of a late equaliser.
Valverde opened the scoring for Madrid with barely a minute played, unleashing a rocket of a free kick from some thirty yards out, with an unwavering flight of the ball that defied Jan Oblak’s attempt to parry. Valverde’s celebration suited the feeling in the stadium. The Uruguayan dashed towards the stands swinging his arms madly over his head in celebration. It was hard not to be marvelled.
Atletico were stunned but recovered fairly quickly, bearing down on Madrid’s goal and sending cross after cross in. It set the tenor for virtually the rest of the game. By the end, Atletico had 22 attempts to Madrid’s eight, with nine corner kicks to Madrid’s one.
Alonso’s side are superb at lightning quick attacks and they showed it repeatedly on the night. Alex Baena’s slip up allowed Alvaro Carreras to run, and after he was hauled down by Marc Pubill, Rodrygo took up the mantle and raced into the penalty box, took Conor Gallagher out of the equation after the former Chelsea man attempted a sliding tackle, and then tried to curl the ball beyond Oblak, except the Slovenian was alert and parried.
At the other end, Baena’s sizzling strike was pushed away by Thibaut Courtois. Again, the Belgian somehow managed to keep out Sorloth’s brilliant header, before the striker then headed just over the bar moments later.
Madrid were fortunate to go into the break still 1-0 up. Rodrygo then showed good movement to dart between David Hancko and Robin Le Normand to double their lead 10 minutes into the second half. Atletico pulled one back only three minutes later, Sorloth finally converting with a header from Guiliano Simeone’s cross.
They continued to push for the equaliser. Marcos Llorente’s curling effort from outside the area was just on the wrong side of the post. Llorente then delivered a superb cross with Antoine Griezmann moving to apply the finish, before it was acrobatically cut out by Aurelien Tchouameni. Julian Alvarez moaned after dragging a shot painfully wide with virtually the last kick of the game.
