The thorn that Carlo Ancelotti said was wedged in Atlético Madrid’s side remains buried in their flesh, deeper and more painful than ever before, never to be removed. For a sixth time they faced their city rivals in Europe – 2025 joining 1959, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 – and for a sixth time they were defeated. Utterly, perhaps eternally defeated. The team that lost one European Cup final derby after a 93rd-minute goal and another on penalties fell once more, and this time may even have been the worst of all, another chapter in the never-ending story.
All of which may sound a bit much for a last-16 tie but the pain accumulates, each loss crueller than the last, and if the final result was oddly inevitable, how it happened was unthinkable, even for a battle between these two. If Atlético didn’t beat Real this time, they may feel they never will. Just when it seemed that fate might have shifted their way at last, it twisted the knife again. “I go in peace,” Diego Simeone said after, insisting that in their silent, lonely moments Real will reflect that over all these years no one made them suffer like his team. Perhaps they will, yet they always survive, and here they did it again.
A goal from Conor Gallagher after 29 seconds, a missed Vinícius Júnior penalty in the second half and a superb Atlético performance in which they took 17 shots, still didn’t deliver redemption. Real just will not be beaten, somehow able to resist anything. Instead, a 1-0 Atlético win made it 2-2 on aggregate, setting up another shootout. There, Atlético lost when Marcos Llorente smashed the bar and Jan Oblak’s hand couldn’t quite keep out Antonio Rüdiger’s decisive kick. More importantly, they lost when Julián Alvarez’s penalty was ruled out by the VAR because he slipped and touched it twice.
It was almost imperceptible, but it was enough: Alvarez wasn’t given the chance to kick it again and Atlético were not given closure, a story written in twisted verse. “Only God knows what is going to happen,” Simeone had said before the game, but even He didn’t expect this. They had only played 29 seconds and Real had touched the ball just once when Simeone’s team took the lead. Gallagher, Alvarez and Rodrigo De Paul combined for the Argentinian midfielder to cross and the Englishman, dashing in, to score.
Atlético had started as they wished and mostly continued as they wanted to as well, closing every avenue to Real and starting to exercise control. They created chances too, especially on the right, a catalogue of clever angled passes beyond Ferland Mendy proving the key that opened up Real. Thibaut Courtois made seven saves, the first from Alvarez, right arm outstretched. He also pushed away two at his near post to close the first half. He opened the second with another stop from Alvarez.
Real were struggling to respond and, on the touchline, Ancelotti’s frustration was clear. Yet it could be felt among the home fans too; that feeling, that fear born of what they had experienced eight days before, when an impressive display at the Bernabéu still ended with a 2-1 defeat, and in so many other derbies too. As if to confirm that, from nowhere, Real got a penalty on 70 minutes, an Atlético attack breaking down and Kylian Mbappé running at them for the first time. Turning into the area he was taken down by Clément Lenglet, handing Vinícius the chance to be executioner. His penalty though went way over the bar and into the stands.
Maybe something really was shifting. Or maybe it wasn’t; instead it was just preparing for an even more painful end, a curse of which they cannot rid themselves. Extra time certainly seemed inevitable, even as Ángel Correa tried to avoid it, his shot racing just beyond the bar in the 90th minute. This was the ninth time they have needed more than 90 minutes since 2013. Everywhere, everyone was exhausted, the tension rising, nerves torn, the threat in every little moment, triumph and disaster hanging over them but still they went for it. Rüdiger slid in to stop Correa. Alexander Sørloth headed at goal. Fede Valverde flashed wide. And then Llorente’s half-volley flew past a post.
And so it went all the way to a shootout and all that hurt, Diego Simeone gathering his players in a huddle and sending them to face their fate one more time.
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