On Saturday, four matches of the 23rd round of the Spanish "La Liga" championship were played. This round is exceptional - the big Madrid derby took place. At the "Wanda Metropolitano" stadium, "Atletico" players welcomed their biggest rivals - the Madrid "Real" players. Demonstrating better gameplay, "Real" proved their advantage over their neighbors and returned to the second position in the tournament table. The match started with both teams playing fairly evenly, but the guests from the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium were the first to celebrate with a goal. In the 16th minute, after a corner kick by Toni Kroos, Sergio Ramos headed the ball towards Casemiro, who acrobatically defeated Jan Oblak. However, in the 25th minute, the home team found a way to delight their fans - after quickly recovering the ball, Antoine Griezmann sprinted forward and alone against Thibaut Courtois, he scored the ball accurately. Even this goal was not the last in the first half. In the 42nd minute, Sergio Ramos converted his eighth penalty of the season, earned by Vinicius Junior. Jose Gimenez brought down the Brazilian just outside the penalty area, but the final contact was registered when the ball reached J. Oblak's fortress. The second half started actively for "Atletico", and they even scored an equalizer, but Alvaro Morata failed to shine against his former team once again - his excellent goal was disallowed after a VAR review. In the 74th minute of the match, the final point was set - after a great pass by Luka Modric, Gareth Bale ran towards the opponents' goal and with a strong shot, he scored the third goal. In the 80th minute, "Atletico" was left to play with ten men, so the match was practically ended by this episode. Madrid's "Real" team rose to the second place after the victory, reducing the gap with the temporary leaders "Barca" to five points. "Atletico" is only one point behind the "Blancos". In the other matches of the round, another Madrid team, "Getafe", celebrated victory at home against "Celta". Meanwhile, "Espanyol" defeated "Rayo Vallecano" at home after a dramatic battle. Results: "Atletico" 1 - 3 "Real Madrid" 16' [0 - 1] Casemiro 25' [1 - 1] A. Griezmann 42' [1 - 2] S. Ramos (penalty) 74' [1 - 3] G. Bale 80' Thomas ("Atletico") sent off from the field "Getafe" 3 - 1 "Celta" 2' [0 - 1] N. Araujo 39' [1 - 1] J. Mata (penalty) 62' [2 - 1] J. Mata 81' [3 - 1] J. Molina 37' M. Gomez ("Celta") sent off from the field "Espanyol" 2 - 1 "Rayo" 33' [0 - 1] A. Ba 72' [1 - 1] B. Iglesias (penalty) 90+5' [2 - 1] S. Darder "Girona" 0 - 2 "Huesca" 35' [0 - 1] E. Avila 40' [0 - 2] E. Avila 68' B. Espinosa ("Girona") sent off from the field
Tournament table:
