There were many questions to emerge from the Madrid derby, which Atlético won 2-1 in front of 70,514 very, very noisy people at the Metropolitano on Sunday afternoon, even if not the one José Mourinho was asking. Or: what was Dean Huijsen thinking? And whatever happened to Vinícius Júnior?
How come Koke is still the best? And how long before Giuliano Simeone actually bursts, his atlético insides exploding across the pitch? Above all though, you were left wondering: where did Real Madrid’s manager get a printer from?
And how did he get the bloody thing to work? You could still hear the singing outside when Mourinho turned up in the press room, laid down his glasses and sat. In his hand was a piece of paper.
Thirteen years after his last derby, on the Santiago Bernabéu night when Madrid lost the Copa del Rey final and a 13-year unbeaten run against their neighbours, Diego Simeone had defeated him again. The stage was new – this stadium didn’t exist then – but his adversary was somehow still the same man, still dressed in black, and the scene was a bit like old times, a classic. Mourinho unfolded the paper and held it up.
Someone had been sent to run off a copy, some footballing Natalie Harp or the manager himself coming back with a couple of gory, freeze-framed, full-colour closeups of tackles. The first showed Cuti Romero’s studs catching Jude Bellingham’s knee; the second showed Kang-in Lee on Fede Valverde’s ankle. Both should have been red, Mourinho insisted, and he was probably right, but neither was.
It should have been nine against 11, he said; instead, it was 11 against 10 because early in the second half Huijsen dragged Giuliano Simeone down for the penalty that gave Atlético the lead and got him sent off. And that, Mourinho said, was that. At which point he could have got up and gone, saved everyone the bother of the press conference like he promised, but no one wants that, least of all his president, and that’s the bit he does best so he carried on.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
