Episodes II and III will have to be very, very special if the Madrid trilogy is to end as well as it began. Atlético and Real were not content with facing each other three times in three competitions and three weeks. They decided to play another half hour for fun, scoring three goals each to take a sixth consecutive derby knockout draw into extra time. There, a wild, beautiful match was finally ended when Jan Oblak, the Atlético goalkeeper, for one last roll of the dice with the score trailing 4-3, instead hunted desperately as Brahim Díaz broke away and fired the ball into an empty net bow. in the 121st minute to send his teammates onto the field and into the final of the Spanish Super Cup.
It was a fitting finale for a hectic occasion: a match with plenty of entertainment and eight goals, two of which were truly brilliant and two of which were really stupid. Most weren’t exactly scored by the usual suspects. Antoine Griezmann had the best chance to overtake Luis Aragonés as Atlético’s all-time top scorer, sure, but not many would have predicted goals for Mario Hermoso, Toni Rudiger, Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal, all defenders. Or own goals from Kepa Arrizabalaga and Stefan Savic, the latter finally giving Real an extra time advantage that allowed them to come through. Just now.
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In the end, the first meeting between these two teams, who meet next week in the Copa del Rey and in early February in the league, yielded 30 shots and went from 1-0 to Atlético to 2-1 to Real, from 3-2 Atletico to 5-3 Real. It wasn’t finally over until Díaz, coming on as a substitute, stood there with his top off and everyone tried to figure out what had happened. The answer was a little bit of everything, except defense. Everyone was exhausted by the end, but for much of the match the technique had been exceptional, made possible by the feeling that the two sides wanted to enjoy this more than is likely to be the case for the next two back in Spain.
It was visible from the very beginning, and especially in the movement that led to the opening goal: deep built in one half and finished in the other, it went from Koke to the exceptional Rodrigo de Paul to Griezmann and then to Samuel Lino. whose curler was pushed wide by Kepa. From Griezmann’s corner, Hermoso was all alone and headed Atlético into the lead. When Real Atlético then boxed in shortly afterwards, they did it again, this time from their own left corner to Real’s left post, where Marcos Llorente’s ball found Álvaro Morata and his shot went into the side netting.
Real struggled to get to grips in those early stages, but Atlético knew all about their refusal to give up and they were soon in the lead. Jude Bellingham shot a deflected shot wide and from the corner Rüdiger headed in a goal that was a virtual copy of That moment from the European Cup final in Lisbon, ten years ago, but still present. The taker was even the same man: Luka Modric.
It was the second game in a row that Rudiger scored and the third consecutive Real goal from a header from a corner, but that run did not last long. If that sounds routine, this certainly wasn’t: a cleverly executed move that ended with a fine flick of Mendy’s ankle to put his side ahead. “That’s how Madrid wins,” chanted the crowd in Riyadh, where Real is broadly the home team, 5,000 kilometers away. However, it is not what you most expect from the French full-back.
It was a beautiful goal, worthy of what was unfolding – what the match lacked in tension, but made up for by the technique – and what followed was even better. Griezmann sent Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rüdiger and especially Modric the wrong way with an extraordinary back-spin that magically made a space appear that had been there less than a second before. He stepped in, fired a right-footed shot past Kepa from the edge of the area, collected the ball from the net and passed it to Diego Simeone for safekeeping. After all, this was the ball with which he had just scored his 164th goal for Atlético – now more than anyone has ever scored – and leveled the semi-final.
Another moment of fantasy came shortly afterwards, when Rodrygo left José María Giménez on the ground, with a shift of weight and a foot movement as quick as the Frenchman’s. Oblak also fell the other way, but somehow he saved with his legs, gratefully grabbing the ball as it looked as if it might turn over the line. It was the fourteenth shot of a hugely enjoyable first half, nine of which were on target, and as the second started Lino hit another fractionally past the post. Then, released by a quickly taken Vinícius free-kick, Carvajal should probably have scored at the other end, allowing Oblak to block his volley from close range.
By then the volume had increased: Toni Kroos, who had said Saudi Arabia’s human rights record was the reason he would never move to the country, was booed every time he got the ball.
The drama would also increase even though the game had slowed down. Atlético took the lead again twelve minutes before the end with a bizarre and comical goal. Kepa jumped over Morata in an attempt to hit a cross, but all he could do was deflect the cross onto Rudiger’s leg and back into his net. The goalkeeper complained that he had been fouled, but that was the response of an embarrassed man clutching at straws – and failing to hold on to them either.
However, he was saved. With six minutes to go, Vinícius zoomed to the left and raced into the area. Oblak saved his first shot, Savic blocked Bellingham’s follow-up, Hermoso cleared Bellingham’s second follow-up off the line, but Carvajal came steaming in and punched the ball in to make it 3-3. Brahim almost got the winner in the 91st minute, going past Hermoso with a brilliant step-over, but his shot went wide, sending another derby into extra time, where an Angel Correa dummy produced a similar moment for Atlético.
Atlético now looked exhausted and could only try to hold on, but failed. The way it happened was cruel and a bit foolish; Savic’s interception bounced over his own goalkeeper and into the net with four minutes remaining and penalties looming. Griezmann then bent just past the post. As the final minute wore on and Atlético chased, so did Oblak. Forced to turn back and give chase, he watched as Brahim Díaz got away, as well as their last chance.