On the eve of the derby, Diego Simeone described this as a special week in Madrid, a “tremendous energy about the city”, and it closed the way he wanted. He had enjoyed the Formula One, he said, and he had enjoyed seeing Shakira in concert, but he enjoyed this even more. At least he did by the time the last of many, many blows on the referee’s whistle brought it to an end, sprinting up the tunnel punching the air. Having been 2-0 up against 10 men through goals from Álex Grimaldo and Jonathan David, seemingly in control, a late header from Antonio Rüdiger awoke old ghosts and brought tension, but they did it.
“A lot has happened in the city but this was the only thing that mattered in his mind and mine,” Atletico keeper Jan Oblak said afterwards. José Mourinho’s first derby back at Real Madrid ended in defeat and recriminations: he turned up in the press conference with a picture of two moments in which he claimed that Lee Kang-in and Cristian Romero should have been sent off and insisted the story was there. And yet there are other questions: over the way Dean Huijsen gave away the penalty and got the red card that tilted the game against them, and how his team played, how little they did.
