Atletico Madrid beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the derby
Atletico Madrid knew they had been on the wrong side of things in the Madrid Derby against Real Madrid.
All that changed once the final whistle blew.
Alvaro Morata scored a brace as Atletico Madrid beat Real Madrid 3-1 to knock Los Blancos off the top of the standings in LaLiga.
Morata netted his first in the fourth minute off a cross from Samuel Lino. The former Real Madrid product snuck behind David Alaba to deftly head past a statuesque Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Antoine Griezmann would double the Colchonero lead in the 18th minute. After passing the ball from one side to the other, Lino laid it off to Saúl Ñíguez who floated in a cross to Griezmann, who was left unmarked, and scored with a header of his own.
The Madrid defense were caught out twice on the headers. This time, Griezmann was able to get in between Eduardo Camavinga and Fran Garcia.
Atletico Madrid were by far and away the better team in the opening half and could have scored a third had it not been for Kepa.
But Real Madrid got one back in the 35th minute as Toni Kross thundered in a trademark long range effort. The momentum shifted and it was now the visitors who were on the front foot, searching for the equalizer.
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Real Madrid thought they had gotten the equalizer right before halftime as they were able to get the ball in the back of the net. But the referee deemed Antonio Rudiger offside. While Rudiger didn’t make contact with the ball, he did make an attempt to play the cross which negated what happened afterwards.
Still, Atletico Madrid sat back a little after getting the second and Real Madrid made them pay.
Diego Simeone certainly caught on to that as his side got the third goal only a minute into the second half.
Atletico Madrid once again caught the Madrid defense napping as Morata scored a second headed goal. David Alaba gestured angrily seemingly at Camavinga but there was plenty of blame to go around.
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The third goal seemed to take some of the sail out of Real Madrid who resorted to a number of long range efforts, getting close on a couple, but were ultimately unable to cut into the Atletico lead.
Atletico saw the rest of the game out and took this edition of the Madrid Derby by a final score of 3-1.
The win saw Atletico climb to fifth place in the standings and with a game in hand.
On the other side, Real Madrid dropped all the way to third and are now staring up at Barcelona and Girona who are first and second, respectively.
The loss brought an end to Real Madrid’s six-game winning streak, in all competitions, to an end.
Real Madrid now needs to put this loss behind them as they head back to the Santiago Bernabeu to take on Las Palmas on Wednesday. Atletico Madrid get an additional rest day as they travel to take on Osasuna at El Sadar.