Real Madrid Plays One of Their Rivals, Atletico Madrid

On Saturday, Sept. 27, Real Madrid played one of their greatest opponents, Atletico Madrid. Their rivalry first began in 1959 in the European Cup, where they met in the semi-finals. Real Madrid won that game. Although Atletico won the game on Saturday, Real Madrid still has the most wins against them. Real Madrid has beaten them 91 times, and Atletico only has 42 wins.

Real Madrid was expected to win; however, Atletico Madrid won 5-2. In the first half, Real Madrid scored two goals. Real Madrid had three goals on target, with two of them going in. Atletico Madrid had eight shots on target with five going in the back of the net. Real Madrid’s passing accuracy was better with 92% while Atletico had a passing accuracy of 88%. Both teams only had one offside. Atletico had seven corners and Real only had two. Atletico had five yellow cards and Real Madrid had four. One goal came from Kylian Mbappe in the 25th minute and another one from Arda Güler in the 36th minute. Only one goal came from Atletico in the first half, which was from Robin Le Normand. Robin Le Normand has only one goal this season, due to him being a strong, hardworking center back. Normand recently joined the team in 2024. 

Atletico’s halftime talk must have been really good because after the second half started, they began scoring more goals. Within the first 6 minutes of the second half, Julian Alaverez scored a goal. Not too long after, Arda Güler fouled Nico González to get the penalty for Julian Alaverez. The last goal was scored by Antoine Griezmann in the 93rd minute. 

Even though Atletico won the game, Real Madrid still had more possession. Real had 63% of possession with the ball, and Atletico only had 37%. Atletico had way better attacks on the goal, though. 

Julián Álvarez was announced the man of the match after scoring two goals. For Real Madrid, their player of the match was Arda Güler. Güler scored their second goal and also assisted Mbappe in his goal. He was Real Madrid’s best performer. Mbappe just joined the team in 2024. He is now one of the best players on the team and has scored 44 goals throughout his Real Madrid career.