Real Madrid haven’t beaten their city rivals Atletico Madrid in 43 months ahead of latest derby clash
Diego Simeone's underdogs have not lost to their neighbours for 43 months but Zinedine Zidane's men are in top form
REAL MADRID have not beaten Atletico in La Liga in the last 43 months.
Tonight Madrid’s streets will be deserted come kick-off time in a make-or-break derby. More for Atletico than leaders Real, mind. Well, unless Atleti win of course.
Boss Zinedine Zidane takes Real five miles south of the Bernabeu to the Calderon unbeaten in 266 days in La Liga.
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That’s 22 matches since their home loss to… Atletico on February 27.
It was Zidane’s first defeat as Real coach and it plunged Los Blancos into a crisis. Around 10,000 angry fans stayed back to boo president Florentino Perez. Real were left 11 points behind leaders Barcelona. Their season looked like a disaster.
Real rallied, won El Clasico at the Nou Camp, but narrowly failed to win La Liga. They did however beat Atletico in the biggie, the Champions League final in Milan on pens.
In their last six Madrid derbies in La Liga Atletico have four wins and two draws.
It’s quite a turn-around considering Atletico had not beaten Madrid in any competition between 1999 and 2013.
Real’s European pedigree has weighed heavily in Uefa’s elite competition.
Real beat “Atleti” in Champions League finals in 2014 and in 2016 and also knocked them out of the 2015 quarter-finals.
Simeone would take six losses in La Liga in the last three seasons to have won those two finals at least which he describes as his worst experiences in football.
Next month the Argentinian boss celebrates five years in charge of Atletico.
In that time he has seen off THREE Real bosses. Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez.
Last night Simeone said: “We reversed the trend by sheer persistence.
Knowing our strengths and weaknesses. Before, we knew we were inferior to Real Madrid, but now, we compete against them as equals.”
The hoodoo ended in Atletico’s 2013 Copa Del Rey final triumph against Real that wrote the epitaph on Mourinho’s Bernabeu reign. And it took place at Real’s historic venue too.
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Then a 4-0 humiliation at the Calderon in February 2015 all but ended Ancelotti’s time in charge.
We tend to look at Los Clasicos as the decisive matches in La Liga. But since Simeone’s arrival, the Madrid derby has matched El Clasico in importance and consequences.
For Real the two Champions League triumphs for La Decima and la Undecima, their 10th and 11th Euro-crowns, came against their city rivals. They kept president Perez in his job, too.
For Atletico, Simeone’s reign is marked by their reversal of fortunes against Real. They need the points tonight after losing twice in the last four and dropping six points behind their rivals.
At Real, Zidane remains in doubt despite his impressive results.
Zizou said: “It’s not a test for me. It’s another La Liga game, and chances are 50-50.”
Only it is a test.
Madrid drew four matches in a row, three of them in La Liga for the first time in a decade, earlier this season.
But they are unbeaten and top of La Liga. Los Blancos are desperate to end their four-year Liga drought. And tonight’s result could prove key. For their title hopes. And for Zidane.