Atlético Madrid saved La Liga - with Marcos Llorente's goal in the 93rd minute, the "colconeros" took a point away from Real Madrid (1:1) and prevented the "royal club" from gaining a perhaps unattainable advantage.
Against the only team against whom they lost twice this season, Carlo Ancelotti's men were on the verge of victory, as they led from the 20th minute, so they were able to gain a four-point advantage over Girona, which they will meet in the next round, 10 over defending champion Barcelona, and even 13 over Atlético. This way they have two, eight and 10, respectively.
Vinicius Junior was announced for the starting line-up, but Ancelotti had to replace him due to pain in the cervical vertebra and gave Braim Dias a chance at the last minute, although he originally wanted to insert Joselu.
It turned out that fate was in favor of Real - a minor offensive in the 20th minute did a great job of "carambola" in the guests' penalty area and beat the weak Jan Oblak.
Atlético could have equalized in the 23rd minute - first, Andrij Lunjin brilliantly saved Aksel Vicelo's shot, and then Stefan Savić shot just past the post after a corner.
The same action took place in the 48th minute, when the Montenegrin representative shook the net, but the goal was justifiably canceled because Saul Njiges was standing in front of Lunjin and was offside.
Interestingly, this was the first time in city derbies that VAR was on Real's side, as the three previous decisions went in Atlético's hands.
In the 70th minute, Dias almost solved all the dilemmas - he put the ball through the legs of Mario Hermos, then kicked Vicelo out of the game, but he shot wide of the post.
That was his last touch with the ball, as he switched it to Josela.
Antoine Griezmann had a great chance, but Lunjin made a great save, and Savić was still destined to be one of the heroes - he crowned a great game in stoppage time, when pulled the ball, made an excellent cross, Memphis Depay dropped the ball to Llorente, and he rattled the net off the crossbar.
Bonus video:
