Episodes II and III will have to be very, very special if the Madrid Trilogy is going to end as well as it started. Not content with facing each other three times in three competitions and three weeks, Atlético and Real decided to play half an hour more just for the fun of it, scoring three goals each to take a sixth successive derby knockout tie into extra time. There, a wild, wonderful game was finally finished off when Jan Oblak, the Atlético goalkeeper, up for one last throw of the dice trailing 4-3, instead found himself desperately chasing as Brahim Díaz broke clear and bent the ball into an empty net in the 121st minute to send his teammates streaming on to the pitch and into the final of the Spanish Super Cup.
It was a fitting finale for a frantic occasion: a game with lots of entertainment and eight goals, two of which were really superb and two of which were really very silly. Most were not exactly scored by the usual suspects. Antoine Griezmann got the best to overtake Luis Aragonés as Atlético’s all-time top scorer, sure, but not many would have predicted strikes for Mario Hermoso, Toni Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal, defenders all. Or own goals from Kepa Arrizabalaga and Stefan Savic, the latter finally handing Real an extra-time lead that would see them through. Just.
