Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid face this Monday (9:00 p.m.) in the first leg of the 2024-2025 Champions League, the third derby of the season and first duel of a tie that the two teams face very different moods, with low and doubts in the white team and more certainties and confidence the rojiblancos, and both seek to take a first step to increase their first step to increase their first step.
The Santiago Bernabéu, in the 500s of Real Madrid in the European Cup, hosts the tenth confrontation between Real Madrid and mattress in the European Cup, in the same stage where both teams tied (1-1) less than a month ago in the Derbi of LaLiga. Then, the whites were domestic leaders and the rojiblancos their persecutors, but now the situation is different.
Real Madrid, who does not fall in the round of 16, faces the one that until now is, after eliminating in this competition to Manchester City in the ‘playoff’, the most important meeting of his season. Above all, to show that his current downturn is that, a downturn. And it is that Ancelotti pupils seemed to have found the key to the ‘citizen’, with a solid, compact team, defensively committed to all lines, but that version seems that it was only a mirage.
Before Real Betis this Saturday, they fell 2-1 in a Gries game, always surpassed by the intensity of the Verdiblancos, with Uns Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Junior off, and with lack of football, since he played only with two midfielders and without the injured Dani Ceballos. This could make Ancelotti reconsider to introduce more weight and forcefulness in the center of the field, if Fede Valverde recovers, and put the three above, without the sanctioned Jude Bellingham or his substitute Brahim Díaz.
The defeat at Benito Villamarín, after winning 0-1 in Anoeta in ‘Semis’ of Cup, makes whites added only 5 points of 15 possible in the last five games of LaLiga, which has made him lose the lead and fall to third place.
This situation could be chaotic if they lose on Tuesday in the derby, something that would leave a team that crosses a state of doubts. Although the Champions always generates a different aura in the group, aware that the story also comes into play.
In front, Atlético de Madrid continues with that cruise speed and, after beating Athletic Club 1-0 this weekend, it remains undefeated since January 18, a dozen meetings (6V and 4E) without losing in all competitions. A resilience that LER allows us to continue closely, just one unit, of the FC Barcelona leader in LaLiga, two above its rival this Tuesday.
The rojiblancos, who do not win in the Madrid fief since February 2016, are also reinforced by the draw (4-4) of madness in Montjuïc in the semis of Copa del Rey in a match that saw him lost 10 minutes from the end. It seems one of the best scenarios for Diego Pablo Simeone to rumn in the Madrid wound and get ahead in the tie, in a direct confrontation in Champions in which they have only won on one occasion.
Unlike the whites, Atlético did not have to play the ‘playoff’ at the end of the first phase of the league, although the raffle was not too benevolent with the mattresses, since the current champion and holder of 15 European drinks are measured very soon, which they have never eliminated in the Champions League. In addition, those of Ancelotti come from winning five of their last six continental games at home.
Although with important casualties such as those of Ceballos or Bellingham, Real Madrid expects to recover the solidity, aware that not to get a good result in their fief would give wings to an Atlético de Madrid that sides in the Moropolitano. However, in the rojiblanco team, the two lost finals in 2014 and 2016 are still too weighing, and now they return to revenge almost eight years after their last crossing in Champions.
For the background -with consecutive draws in 90 minutes -an equalized meeting is expected, in which the important casualties will also be key in Real Madrid, without Ceballos or Bellingham and with Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz played. More unknown in an Atlético with a very defined eleven, who found in a flexible defense of six, without ball, the wall against a fierce Madrid attack, which will be entrusted with the Vinícius, Mbappé, Rodrygo and company.
Data Sheet.
–Posibles alignments:
Real Madrid: courtois; Lucas Vázquez, sencio, rüdiger, mendy; Valverde, tchouameni, camavinga; Rodrygo, mbappé y viicus.
Atlético de Madrid: Oblak; Llorente, Giménez, Lenglet, Galán; Giuliano Simeone, from Paul, Barrios, Samu Lino; Griezmann and Julián Álvarez.
-ARBITRER: CLÉMENT TURPIN (FRA).
-Stadium: Santiago Bernabéu.
“ Hora: 21.00/Movistar+ Champions League.