From Courtois to Costa: Winners and losers as Madrid derby ends in stalemate

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In a tense and tightly fought night of football, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid played out a 0-0 draw.

The result takes Madrid joint-top of La Liga on points and leaves their visitors frustrated as they will feel they should have snatched all three points, especially in the first half. Here are the winners and losers:

Winner: Thibaut Courtois

Thibaut Courtois spent three incredible years at Atlético Madrid, helping them overcome Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu in the 2012/13 Copa del Rey final, and then being the rock upon which they built their title-winning defence in 2013/14. His last game for Atleti was losing 4-1 in the Champions League final to Real Madrid, who he played for tonight.

Courtois has played Atleti since leaving them, going unbeaten in two games last season, but this time he was facing them representing the old enemy. This time Atleti fans wanted to see him suffer, rather than appreciating all he did for them. The thing is? Courtois was in no mood to be charitable tonight.

The Belgian was superb at the Bernabeu, Madrid’s best player all things considered. He was cool, calm and in control. And when Los Blancos needed him to stand tall, he was a giant. Twice Atleti put together rapier-like counters to get in behind the Madrid defence, 1v1 with Courtois. Twice the big Belgian walked out to meet the strikers (Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa) and twice he deaded their shots with superb saves. He kept Madrid alive and is the reason they got a point.

Loser: Gareth Bale

Oh dear, Gareth. With Cristiano Ronaldo now in Italy, this was scheduled to become Bale’s team. It was supposed to. And he began the season well enough that he could have hoped for this game to be his coming out party, where he announces himself the new King of Madrid.

Instead he played poorly, looking mostly lost and unable to really break Atleti’s brick wall of a defence down in any meaningful fashion. Not with his pace, not with his long-range shooting. He just couldn’t make the difference, and to make matters worse he felt a muscle twinge and was taken off at half-time for Dani Ceballos. Even if the injury isn’t serious, the fact that he so failed to impact a marquee game just days after watching his side get smashed 3-0 by Sevilla does not bode well for his status in the capital.

Winner: Godín and Giménez

Diego Godín has been one of the world’s finest centre-backs since Diego Simeone joined Atlético Madrid. The Uruguayan has truly developed into a colossus. But his start to the season has been slower than usual, with him making two clear mistakes that cost Atleti goals. But now Godín is back in the rhythm, and that showed against Madrid.

But he was upstaged at the Santiago Bernabeu by his defensive partner, the young José Giménez. The 23 year old titan has often struggled to establish himself under Diego Simeone, but he’s getting run in the team now and at the Bernabeu, Giménez was gigantic against Madrid, first to everything, constantly blocking and intercepting passes or clearing crosses.

Madrid simply could not find a way past the massive men at the heart of Atleti’s defence (and when they did, Jan Oblak stood tall). With these two united for club and country, it’s going to be very hard to find a way past Atleti in these big games.

Loser: Diego Costa

The tyrant of a striker who dominated all opponents, energising the Atleti attack, was surprisingly meek against Madrid. After he had so bullied Los Blancos’ defence in the UEFA Super Cup, it was strange to see him struggle here. This wasn’t even because the Madrid defenders were so impressive, Costa just made consistently bad decisions.

He was hooked after 69 minutes, and no one was surprised. In fact the only shock was that he wasn’t the first player removed after an hour. This meant Costa has now gone 16 La Liga games without a goal, which is a frankly shameful statistic for a striker whose skill is such that he remains essential to the side even when he isn’t scoring. Costa will always play for Atleti, but if they want to win La Liga they need him to start scoring.

Winner: Barcelona

Barcelona have just endured a terrible week of form where they failed to win three very winnable games. Two draws and a defeat should have seen them tumble off top spot, but Real Madrid’s own stumbling, capped by failing to beat Atleti tonight, has seen the Blaugrana stay on top of the table. Sure, now they will be kicking themselves that, had they won all these games as they really should have done they’d be seven points clear at the top of the table, but the fact that they could endure a rotten patch of form and not lose their top spot is huge.

Loser: Julen Lopetegui

This was to be a huge test for Julen Lopetegui, his first of the four epic clashes with the other Big Three sides. His Madrid side had just come off a huge thrashing from Sevilla, where his side were ritually humiliated and should have been defeated by more than just three goals.

Many were expecting Los Blancos to bounce back against Atleti, to bare their teeth and take a bite out of their noisy neighbours. But in the end nothing like that happened as Madrid never really looked a genuine attacking threat in the game until Atleti surrendered the initiative to them in the second half. For that first period Atleti were wholly dominate and should have been two goals ahead (at least!)

Lopetegui now enters a run of winnable games ahead of next month’s Clásico, and he will be grateful for them because on the basis of tonight’s derby, the former Spain manager has a lot of work on to change Real Madrid into the phenomenal side that they should be.

The post From Courtois to Costa: Winners and losers as Madrid derby ends in stalemate appeared first on Squawka News.



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