September 24, (THEWILL) – Atletico Madrid pulled off an impressive 3-1 victory over city rivals, Real Madrid, on Sunday evening, helped by an Alvaro Morata double, as they handed Los Blancos their first defeat of the 2023/2024 La Liga season.
Roared on by their home fans at Estadio Civitas Metropolitano, Atletico raced into a two goal lead inside 20 minutes, thanks to headers from Alvaro Morata and Antoine Griezmann. Real Madrid managed to halve the deficit before half-time courtesy of a long-range Toni Kroos strike, but Diego Simeone’s Atleti remained in control and restored their two goal advantage just 40 seconds after the restart through another Morata header.
Despite a raft of second half substitutions from Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, the visitors were unable to breakdown Atletico’s famously stubborn defence and come away with anything from the match.
The result sees Real Madrid drop from first to third in the La Liga table after six games played, now sitting behind Barcelona and surprise package Girona while being separated from both by a single point. Meanwhile, the impressive victory lifts Atletico Madrid up to fifth spot behind Athletic Bilbao.
Up next, Atletico travel to Osasuna on Thursday aiming to continue their good form while Real Madrid will look to bounce back from their first defeat when they host relegation-threatened Las Palmas on Wednesday.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
