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Atletico win Madrid derby to keep title hopes alive

Xinhua, February 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

A second half goal from Atletico Madrid striker Antoine Griezmann kept his side's hopes of the BBVA Primer Liga title alive and gave them a morale boosting win away to local rivals, Real Madrid.

The win was thoroughly deserved by Atletico, who neutralized Real's strikers throughout the game to frustrate Real coach Zinedine Zidane and the fans in the Santiago Bernabeu, who ended the game chanting for club President, Florentino Perez to resign.

As expected Atletico set out their stall to keep things tight at the back, with two defensive lines of four strung across the park with Fernando Torres and Antoine Griezmann looking to feed off scraps in attack.

Real Madrid meanwhile looked to move the ball around and find a way through the defense, but struggled to find spaces, with their best chances being a Rafael Varene header that slid wide of the post, and a Cristiano Ronaldo free kick which was parried by Jan Oblak in the Atletico goal.

Karim Benzema dragged a shot wide of the post, before Atletico took a step forward in the last 10 minutes of the half.

Griezmann saw a 25-yard shot parried over the bar by Keylor Navas and Koke tried to surprise the Real Madrid goalkeeper on the near post only for the Real Madrid keeper to react and keep his shot out.

The second half began with Ronaldo wasting his side's best chance of the game when he dragged a right foot shot wide of the post with Atletico for once caught out of position.

It was to prove to be a costly miss as Greizmann put Atletico ahead in the 53rd minute. The visitors found space to launch a break and the French forward picked out Felipe Luis who advanced into space totally unmarked before pulling the ball back for Griezmann to beat Navas with a smart shot.

Saul nearly doubled Atletico's lead just afterwards but was denied by Navas' fingertips, before Ronaldo wasted a guilt edged chance when he headed straight at Oblak, but in general Atletico held on with few problems as the crowd got increasingly impatient. Enditem