{"id":22149,"date":"2025-02-09T10:52:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T10:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22149"},"modified":"2025-02-09T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T10:56:09","slug":"la-liga-mbappe-secures-real-madrid-derby-draw-against-atletico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=22149","title":{"rendered":"La Liga: Mbapp\u00e9 secures Real Madrid derby draw against Atl\u00e9tico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022Agency Report<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 secured a 1-1 draw for Real Madrid against rivals Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, keeping Los Blancos top of La Liga on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez dinked home a controversial first-half penalty for Atl\u00e9tico, but Mbapp\u00e9 was in the right place at the right time to bundle the ball home early in the second half on his first appearance in the intense derby clash.<\/span><\/p>\n

Real Madrid remain one point ahead of second-placed Atl\u00e9tico, with Barcelona, in third, given the chance to close the gap on the top two when they face Sevilla on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to continue on this path, we\u2019re in the fight, and we will stay there until the end,\u201d \u00c1lvarez told Movistar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I wasn\u2019t a bit nervous with the penalty, but I was sure\u2014I knew what I would do, and it was a great goal for the team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti opted to deploy his four key attacking players\u2014Mbapp\u00e9, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, Jude Bellingham, and Rodrygo Goes\u2014rather than taking a more conservative approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

The star names put in the effort, not always a given in defensive play, and the first half was a hard-fought, intense battle with few clear openings for either side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vin\u00edcius dragged a shot wide midway through the first half when he found a rare sight of goal for the hosts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico were frustrated when Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos was only booked for a rough challenge on Pablo Barrios, but it was the hosts who were left furious when referee C\u00e9sar Soto Grado pointed to the penalty spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni, covering at centre-back for Madrid with Antonio R\u00fcdiger and \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o among those unavailable, clumsily stepped on Samuel Lino\u2019s foot in the box.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a VAR review, Soto Grado awarded a controversial penalty, to Madrid\u2019s frustration, as the incident occurred after the ball had already gone past the duo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Blancos had criticised Spanish refereeing earlier in the week after being upset by a decision in a shock defeat last weekend, increasing scrutiny on the officials ahead of the derby.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c1lvarez took the penalty\u2014the first given against Madrid in La Liga this season\u2014and cheekily executed a Panenka down the middle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCorruption in the federation,\u201d chanted Real Madrid fans in response, echoing their club\u2019s stance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madrid Battle Back<\/span><\/p>\n

Madrid pulled level early in the second half when Rodrygo broke loose on the right side of the box and crossed for Bellingham.<\/span><\/p>\n

The England international\u2019s shot was blocked, but Mbapp\u00e9 was on hand to turn home the rebound, scoring on his Madrid derby debut.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bellingham twice came close to putting Madrid ahead, nodding against the crossbar from a Vin\u00edcius cross and then heading straight at Atl\u00e9tico goalkeeper Jan Oblak from a similar position, kicking the post in frustration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madrid played with far more fluidity in the second half and pinned Atl\u00e9tico back, forcing coach Diego Simeone to make defensive-minded changes, including withdrawing his son Giuliano, who had a quiet game on the right wing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oblak made a smart save to deny Vin\u00edcius after the Brazilian winger burst through the gap between two Atl\u00e9tico defenders and fired from a tight angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Slovenian goalkeeper also managed to keep out a dangerous free-kick from Rodrygo, which was intended as a cross but nearly flew in at the far post.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oblak made a brave low stop from Mbapp\u00e9 in the 90th minute after Fede Valverde sent the French forward through on goal, and the two sides ultimately shared\u00a0the\u00a0points.<\/span><\/p>\n

AFP<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 secured a 1-1 draw for Real Madrid against rivals Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, keeping Los Blancos top of La Liga on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4143,10116,586,1334,58],"class_list":["post-22149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-atletico","tag-derby-draw","tag-la-liga","tag-mbappe","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22153,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22149\/revisions\/22153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}