The perfect start from Atletico Madrid, the best in club history, had to go through the Santiago Bernabeu, which was stunned to see Diego Costa give his team their first league win over Real Madrid in 14 years, with excellent, efficient and clever football that has never been part of their M.O.
Carlo Ancelotti made it seem like he was afraid of this encounter, using two defensive midfielders in his lineup, and maybe he lost the match from the first moment, being someone who reacts to what Diego Simeone does instead of taking the initiative.
Atletico were the more dangerous team, as Diego Lopez had another wonderful performance on the goal line, saving Real Madrid from an embarrassing home defeat. Gabi did a perfect job in eliminating Isco, and the rest from what we saw from Real Madrid was random and mostly ineffective.
Diego Costa might be busy most of the time in with trying to annoy the defenders who mark him, but he makes it difficult enough with his aggression and movement, keeping himself away from the center, pulling Pepe or Sergio Ramos to where their less comfortable. It allowed David Villa and Koke to reach some fantastic opportunities, stopped by Lopez every time but once.
This loss means Real Madrid are now five points behind Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, which is way too much considering the ease in which Barcelona have picked up points up to this point. Atletico Madrid? Even with their win, their shorter squad means it’s still going to be very difficult keeping up this pace of banking points.
At the moment, however, Atletico Madrid are the best team in the city. They don’t have one player they rely on, unlike Real Madrid, who can’t score goals with Cristiano Ronaldo making things happen on his own, while Isco is the only player capable of making the whole team look good. Gareth Bale, at the moment, is injured and playing out of position.
With these kind of decisions from the manager and such a slow and lacking focus performance from his players, there’s no wonder Atletico Madrid looked so much better throught most of the 90 minutes.