Atlético Madrid beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the Metropolitano and went above them in the table. The match turned on one minute of the second half, and the argument about that minute lasted a good deal longer than the match did.
The 52nd minute
Dean Huijsen brought Giuliano Simeone down inside the area on 49. The referee gave the penalty and reached for a yellow card. VAR sent Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias to the monitor, the card was upgraded, and Huijsen was off on 52.
Alejandro Grimaldo scored the penalty on 53, left footed into the bottom left corner. It is his second goal since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.
Jonathan David made it two on 59, left footed from the centre of the box after a cross from Giuliano Simeone. That is three goals in three matches for David. Simeone won the penalty and made the second goal, which is most of an afternoon's work.
Five shots, then thirteen
Atlético had five shots in the 52 minutes before the red card and thirteen in the 38 minutes after it.
At eleven against eleven this was a match nobody was winning. Hancko and Lee Kang-In had shots blocked in the space of two minutes around the half hour, Jan Oblak tipped over an Arda Güler effort on 40, and the sides went in level with three minutes added.
Afterwards Atlético finished with 18 shots, nine of them on target, and 60.9 per cent of the ball. Thibaut Courtois made five saves and every one of them came in the second half: Álex Baena on 47, Lee on 56, a Cristian Romero header on 66, Julián Álvarez on 77 and Koke in stoppage time. Ibrahima Konaté blocked another Álvarez shot on the line. The 2-1 flatters the visitors.
What Real Madrid did with eleven men
Six shots, one on target.
That is the number the press conference afterwards did not go near. Real Madrid had 52 minutes at even strength and produced one attempt that Oblak had to deal with. Kylian Mbappé took a single shot in the whole match, blocked from long range on 40. Vinícius Júnior had two, both over the bar, and was withdrawn on 54.
Real finished with 39.1 per cent of the possession and 393 passes to Atlético's 618. Their goal arrived on 89 through Antonio Rüdiger, a centre back who had come on for an attacking midfielder, heading in a Bernardo Silva cross.
Mourinho brought photographs
José Mourinho carried printed pictures of two first half incidents into the press room: Romero treading on Jude Bellingham's knee on 36, which VAR reviewed and left as a yellow, and Lee Kang-In's challenge on Federico Valverde, which was not punished at all.
"They're two clear red cards," Mourinho said, holding up the images. He called Ortiz Arias "a poor referee, who's only done small games" and said the 41 year old "couldn't cope with the pressure", while the VAR at Las Rozas had none.
He is not inventing it. Atlético committed 19 fouls to Real Madrid's six and collected two yellow cards for them. Lee gave away five of those fouls on his own and finished the match unbooked. Real Madrid said afterwards that Valverde had suffered severe trauma to his left ankle and would undergo further tests. He played all 90 minutes.
The problem with the argument is that VAR intervened on cards twice and did so once against each side, so the complaint is about which way the decisions went rather than about decisions not being looked at. And a team that puts one shot on target in 52 minutes of eleven against eleven is not being beaten by a referee.
Diego Simeone declined to discuss any of it. "We're in a privileged position: Mourinho, Flick, Pellegrini, me. We need to be careful what we say," he said. "When we go outside that respect, it doesn't matter if you're Mourinho, Simeone, Pellegrini or Flick, you can't cross that line."
The table
Atlético are second on 16 points from seven, Real Betis third on the same total, Real Madrid fourth on 15. Barcelona have 21 from seven and have won everything they have played.
This was Mourinho's first meeting with Simeone since 2014 and his second league defeat of the season. Real Madrid go into the international break six points off the top, with the two sides who are above them both having played the same number of games.
