• Opinion: Who can kill a derby ?, by I. Díaz-Guerra

When more internal fears surface, goals tend to find a perfect hiding place. And in the Wanda Metropolitano it was the fear of falling into an abyss even early that buried them again as it did on the last date between Simeone and Zidane, in 2017, the new stadium was born. There were amagos, but there was no decision. There were slight impulses, but he missed adrenaline. It was a derby where nobody seemed to want to break a plate. And it is that a point does not hurt anyone.

There was no trace or sequels or pending accounts of that celebrated summer date in New Jersey. Apparently, not even Diego Costa looked like Diego Costa throughout the derby. That is, Diego Costa always overexcited against Real Madrid. Not a classic carantoña with Ramos. Not a courtesy greeting with Carvajal, if only for what they left pending that summer night. He started as if the fear of losing was more intense than the desire to take the first derby in his pocket. A soft and warm start where there was hardly any news of the testosterone of as many nights. Well, that Costa, surely taught by Simeone, seemed fresh out of school. A tame and novel version in a striker of warrior tradition and always ardent, ready for battle.

Zidane took the young Valverde's hand for his spinal cord. The Champions show the mustache behind the corner and it was not a matter of forcing Modric. The League is long. So between the Uruguayan, Kroos and Casemiro were moving calmly to Real Madrid, whose offensive obsession, of course, was Hazard and Bale. The Belgian watermarks on the left wing and the Welsh speed in reverse, making Lodi sweat like never before. Trippier was managing with the star signing of Madrid. They know each other of the thousand and one battles that Tottenham and Chelsea fought in the Premier. They prowled the area, opened the field, but the most poisonous resource of the whites was the right hand of Kroos, who remembered that Oblak was under sticks.

Thomas at the helm

From the first minute it was learned that Courtois defended the rival goal because the spiky white goalkeeper fell a row after another of what was his stand. The past is not forgotten. The fact is that Atlético's worst intentions came again and again from its right side. From which he controlled with Trippier temper and protected with troubles (yellow at 20 minutes) Nacho, who had to throw his back on his back due to the forced absences of Marcelo and Mendy. The helm was carried by Thomas, turned by his own merits into the most precise and tuned metronome of the center of the red and white field. With him, the ball runs a smile. And from his boots sprang the best chance of his team that Costa failed to impale for a span.

In that first act, Joao Félix appeared, intermittently. His first duels, galloping, were with Sergio Ramos, the man of the 40 derbies. His shots found no goal. There was a lack of precision and possibly some fear was left over. A draw, about to close September, didn't seem so bad for either of them. Neither Atlético nor Real Madrid wanted to split their shirt early. As if every gesture, every movement, was finely measured.

With Modric, something else

And the first gestures were from Simeone. He pulled as usual Correa, a classic rojiblanco agitator of recent years, and turned Saul back left-handed, breaking into the Lemar road. The last to join the party with his ex was Marcos Llorente, nothing bad if it was not because the sacrificed was Joao Felix, something he picked out in the stands. By that time, Madrid was beginning to show warm appetite. After all, they had never left the Metropolitan empty and their intention was to keep it that way.

But it was Zidane's first move that changed the game. With Modric Madrid is something else. It's obvious. Simeone knows well, as he warned reflexively in the previous one. And with the Croatian on the grass the loudest flash of the match was articulated. A flash that illuminated Benzema, but failed to blind Oblak, renewed with leafy checkbook for moments like these. His glove reached the Frenchman's header when fate seemed to mean otherwise.

It was not a thing of any agreement, but the truth is that there was no aggression of any kind. Courtois had nothing to stop. Not even the memory of New Jersey managed to light the issue. It was a derby without more. As if the past were just an anecdote.

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  • sports
  • football
  • Real Madrid
  • Atlético de Madrid
  • Zinedine Zidane
  • Diego Simeone

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