Derby Doldrums

You have to go back to 1999 for the last time Atlético beat neighbours Real Madrid, and, on the evidence of last night's performance, they may well have to wait another ten years to do so.

Not that Atlético did not deserve to win; they did. But if they're going to waste that many opportunities to score, then it will be a long time before they can slay their particular bête noire.

Real can count themselves lucky that they were not three goals down at the break. Pepe's suspension for an accumulation of bookings, meant Juande Ramos had to rearrange his back four. The last time Pepe was missing, Real Madrid lost a league game, at Barcelona, and it looks like Juande made a couple of tactical mistakes.

His first, playing Lass as right back and putting Sergio Ramos alongside Cannavaro in the centre of defence unbalanced the side and showed why Lass's presence as a defensive midfielder is crucial to Real Madrid's success. Everyone knows Salgado is not my favourite defender, but when Juande rectified in the second half and brought him on, the difference was palpable. Surely he should have picked either Salgado or Torres at right back, or even Metzelder in the centre and Sergio Ramos in his usual spot?

The other tactical error was leaving Higuaín out of the side. Though the young Argentine has not scored for a few games, he does lead the side in assists in the league, and soon after coming on for Guti he provided Huntelaar with his equalising chance, though he was admittedly offside.

Atlético fans will not just rue the many missed chances by Agüero, Forlán and the rest, they can also point to a poor performance from the referee, who not only missed Real's offside goal, but also disallowed a perfectly good Atlético goal and wanted nothing to do with a penalty on Agüero.

Real, on the other hand, will pack their bags for Tuesday's game at Liverpool knowing that Pepe should be the rock at the centre of defence and hoping that their creative players can find that spark they so sorely needed on Saturday.

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Dramatic Derby

Gonzalo Higuaín snatched all three points for Real Madrid with a goal from the penalty spot deep into injury time and extended his side's unbeaten run at the Vicente Calderon stadium to nine years. However, the true "star" of the show was, for all the wrong reasons, referee Carlos Clos Gómez. Two disallowed goals, two extremely rigorous sendings-off and one instance of not applying the advantage rule when it could have resulted in a goal mean that he is receiving significantly more column inches than any of the other 22 men on the pitch.

The stadium, with a three-match ban from UEFA hanging over it for the incidents at the recent Champions League clash with Olympique Marseille, thankfully did not become a protagonist on the night. The fact that there were only a few hundred "visiting" fans (clearly a result of ticket allocation rules rather than the "inconvenience" of staying on the Madrid Metro for a few more stops) meant the large police contingent had little to deal with. Less impressive however, was the unfurling of a 10 metre-long banner just before half-time paying homage to recently deceased extreme right-wing Austrian politician Jörg Haider.

It took a mere 34 seconds for Ruud van Nistelrooy to get on the scoresheet, with a cheeky shot from outside the area that found the corner of the goal and surprised Atlético keeper Leo Franco. Twenty minutes later the Dutchman wasn't so lucky as the referee disallowed his goal for a dubious offside decision. Raúl then had another goal disallowed for offside, this time more debatable, but certainly a close call.

Real could have finished the half three goals up as Atlético's midfield fought with Gago and De la Red and lost. Instead, both sides went to the dressing room a man down. Perea slapped Sneijder and got his marching orders on the half hour. For Real Madrid, Van Nistelrooy was on the receiving end of an extremely harsh decision just eight minutes later. Frankly, it had the whiff of "compensation" from the referee.

Javier Aguirre, the local coach, brought on Simao after the break, making a huge difference to his side and forcing Real to give up significant ground. Sergio Ramos, who had had a fairly easy time of it in the first half, struggled to contain Atlético's attacks on his wing in the second. It was Simao himself who would send the local fans into a delirium of happiness as he flighted a free kick over the wall to beat a static Casillas, levelling the match with under a minute left of normal time.

However, there was still more drama to be played out. The referee had to stop the match in the second half for an injury he himself had picked up, and consequently had to add on plenty of stoppage time. Then, on the 96th minute, Drenthe was clearly tripped inside the area by Heitinga and Higuaín put away the resulting spot kick to extend Atlético's derby curse for yet another year.

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Weight of history hurts Atlético

The press had been building up this game as the most exciting Madrid derby in years. Atlético finally were playing like a team that deserves to be in the Champions League spots and Real, though in front by a considerable margin, had just been knocked out of the Copa del Rey and their win at Levante the previous week had been rather a lacklustre affair. On the night, it took Raúl (yes, him again, they really must hate him at the Calderón) just 31 seconds to put Real in front, after Robinho had robbed Pablo of the ball twice by the touchline and played it back for his captain to fool the keeper with a trademark goal.

It was not all plain sailing for Real in the first half. The home crowd egged their team on with an enthusiasm rarely seen at the Bernabéu and Casillas had to once again don his saintly garb to keep Agüero out either with his hands or with the help of the woodwork. Pepe suffered a recurrence of his injury early on and had to be replaced by Ramos in the centre of defence, with Salgado (why, oh why, oh why) coming on for the Brazilian.

But, at the time when it hurt the most, just before half time, Van Nistelrooy pounced with a half-hit half-volley that put the game beyond the locals' reach and took the wind out of their sails (except for Agüero) for the entire second half. If Guti had had a better day, there could have been a couple more goals, but the scoreboard stayed put and the home fans went home with the certainty of another defeat at the hands of their bitterest rivals, making it 9 years since their last win over the blancos. At least they have the consolation of not having to face them again this season in their fight for a CL spot.

This win keeps Real firmly at the top of the standings, still seven points over Barcelona, whom they can't quite shake off, and twelve points over the third placed team and next Sunday's rivals, Villareal. The list of all the teams Real Madrid has beaten away from home so far this season makes for interesting reading:

• Barcelona (2nd)
  
• Villareal (3rd)
  
• Atlético (4th)
  
• Valencia (8th)
  
• Getafe (12th)
  
• Athletic (15th)
  
• Levante (20th)

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