Atletico Madrid defeated Real Madrid 2-1 in the Madrid derby, played as part of the 7th round of Spain's La Liga. The turning point came in the 50th minute, when Real defender Huijsen crudely blocked an opponent with his hand inside his own penalty area.
Grimaldo's long pass from his own half sent Simeone through on goal, and the forward controlled the ball with his chest, beating Huijsen to it. Having lost the physical battle, the Real defender pulled down the Argentine forward by the arm. After a VAR review, the referee not only awarded a penalty but also sent Huijsen off with a straight red card.
Grimaldo stepped up to take the penalty once again — and, just as he did against Real Sociedad in round five, converted it flawlessly to put Atletico ahead.
The Rojiblancos kept up the pressure and struck again in the 59th minute to double their lead. This time Simeone himself turned provider, with a precise low pass finding David, who made no mistake from close range.
Real tried to salvage the match late on — Rüdiger pulled one back with a header — but Madrid ran out of time to level the score. Atletico have won back-to-back home derbies for the first time since January 1977.
Villarreal, Prague's Slavia's future Champions League opponent in November, had picked up just two points from their first five games but beat Levante 3-1 on Sunday to claim their second league win. Perez's first-half goal was briefly cancelled out by Romero, but the visitors had no answer to strikes from Moleiro and Mikautadze.
After round 7, Villarreal sit eighth in the incomplete standings, while Levante are seventeenth. Elsewhere in the round, Getafe beat Malaga 1-0, Deportivo La Coruña and Betis drew 1-1, and Valencia fell 3-2 to Real Sociedad.
Barcelona remain the league leaders with 21 points from seven wins in seven matches. Atletico Madrid sit second with 16 points, edging out Betis on additional metrics, while Real Madrid occupy fourth place with 15 points.
Source: sport.cz