Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid never looked like being a festival of attacking football and so it proved on Tuesday night.
This was a match of few clear-cut chances and only fleeting momentum on either side. It was absorbing, yes, but you would struggle to call it a thriller.
It was not devoid of quality, however. Two fine individual strikes lit up the first half and briefly threatened to open up the encounter.
The Briefing: Real 2 Atletico 1 – Brahim winner, Rodrygo and Alvarez stunners
There were just three minutes on the clock when Rodrygo scored the first of them. In its conception, the goal owed a lot to Federico Valverde, who capitalised on some over-eager positioning from Atletico full-back Javi Galan and drilled an excellent pass into the right channel.
From that point, Rodrygo took charge. In the first instance, it was his pace that made the difference, taking him past the desperate Galan and into the Atletico penalty area.
There was, at this point, still plenty to do. Atletico centre-back Jose Maria Gimenez was well placed, for one thing. Rodrygo might have darted right, staying on his stronger foot, and tried to go across the goalkeeper. Instead, he surfed the momentum of his run, continued infield, made an irrelevance of Gimenez and — just as the ball was threatening to bobble out of his orbit — whipped a powerful shot in with his left foot.
Jack Lang
Rodrygo’s goal for UK viewers:
What a start 😳
Atlético Madrid can’t stop Rodrygo as he drives inside to open the scoring ⚽
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 4, 2025
For US viewers:
Rodrygo STUNS Atlético Madrid with a beautifully timed run and finish in under 5 minutes 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GhTwta38GZ
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 4, 2025
The defender’s perspective
“Stay on the inside of the line of the pass.”
Paul McGuinness, the former Manchester United youth coach, regularly makes that coaching point whenever he sees a goal like the one Atletico conceded inside four minutes.
“It was something Ray Lewington said at a coaching demo,” McGuinness told The Athletic two years ago. “Ray might have been at Fulham at the time (as assistant manager to Roy Hodgson) and he said: ‘Stay on the inside of the line of the pass looking out, ready to go out to the opponent.’”
Don’t step out of line: Why full-backs’ positioning can cause chaos
At the point Valverde received possession from Eduardo Camavinga, Galan was inside the line of the pass. Galan then anticipates — gambles would be another word — that Valverde is going to play the ball to Rodrygo’s feet. He runs towards Rodrygo to get tight, which leaves a huge channel inside him, partly because the rest of the Atletico back four are so slow to move across, starting with Clement Lenglet, the left-sided centre-back. There is more than 20 yards between Lenglet and Galan.
As soon as Valverde makes contact with the ball, Galan knows he is in trouble. In fact, he is in full panic mode and turns 270 degrees, chasing back for the ball without even being able to see Rodrygo sprinting around the outside of him. Rodrygo beats Galan for pace, glides past Lenglet as if he is not there and scores brilliantly.
Interestingly, McGuinness said something else about these moves. “If their star player is the winger, you might go and stand next to him and get somebody else inside that line.”
In other words, if you are going to get super tight to your opponent in this kind of scenario, you need to do so with the confidence that a team-mate will take up the right position. Lenglet, in fairness, was inside the line of the pass… the problem was that he was so far inside that he was not even in the picture.
Stuart James
If Rodrygo’s goal was partly about that flowing run that preceded the finish, Alvarez’s was more concise. The lead-up was scrappy, with Real midfielder Eduardo Camavinga initially closing him down just outside the box and even getting a foot to the ball.
Alvarez was lucky to retain possession. Determined, too, to make the most of his good fortune. He jagged inside, head down, and with no great movement from Atletico players in the box, decided that a pot shot was probably the most sensible option, even from a relatively unappealing angle.
The rest was perfection, the ball arcing beyond the despairing ex-Atleti ‘keeper Thibaut Courtois and in at the far post, via a little kiss of the woodwork.
Alvarez’s goal for UK viewers:
That is some strike from Julián Alvarez 😮💨
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 4, 2025
For US viewers:
Julián Álvarez delivers an absolute GOLAZO to bring Atlético level ☄️ pic.twitter.com/VMz0F1FAcZ
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 4, 2025
The better goal? That, of course, is a matter of personal preference. Rodrygo’s came at the end of a clever pass and gets beauty marks for the butter-smooth dribble. Alvarez’s had the bigger shock factor, plus a trickier starting position. I would lean towards the former, although…
Jack Lang
The defender’s perspective
Raul Asencio is initially marking Alvarez on the edge of the penalty area. But as Alvarez starts to run across the box, towards the left flank, Asencio signals to Camavinga to pick up the Atletico forward, with the Real Madrid centre-back not wishing to be dragged out of position.
Camavinga tracks Alvarez and ends up in a one-on-one duel just outside the area and close to the byline. Expecting Alvarez to come back inside on his favoured right foot, Camavinga lunges with his left foot to try to win the ball. He makes contact but not enough and ends up slightly off balance, allowing Alvarez to escape.
As Alvarez dribbles into the area with the ball, Camavinga tries to get back at him but — and perhaps this is what happens when someone is taking on a 0.03 xG shot — he makes no attempt to even block the ball. To put it another way, Camavinga is quite happy for Alvarez to shoot from that crazy angle. The strike, of course, is absolutely exquisite.
They were both superb goals – and Brahim Diaz’s second-half winner was a delightful effort, too – but Alvarez’s strike really took your breath away because it was so unexpected he would even attempt to score from that position. The way the Argentina forward wrapped his right foot around the ball while generating so much power by transferring his weight was textbook technique.
It was a shot that had to be inch-perfect to beat Courtois from that angle — and it was just that: perfect.
Stuart James
Which goal do you think was better? Have your say below…
(All screen grabs via TNT Sports; top photos: Getty Images)
