Moroccan midfielder Brahim Diaz was the hero at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night as Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 clash, Afrosport reports.
Diaz found the back of the net in the 55th minute as Los Blancos edged city rivals Atletico in another Madrid derby in the Champions League knockout stage.
🏁 @RealMadridEn 2-1 @AtletiEnglish
⚽ 4′ @RodrygoGoes
⚽ 32′ Julián Alvarez
⚽ 55′ @Brahim pic.twitter.com/kBGNAOIA0X— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) March 4, 2025
Madrid got off to the best of starts when Rodrygo drilled home the opener in the fourth minute to send the home fans into raucous celebrations. The Brazilian latched onto an excellent pass from Federico Valverde before driving into Atletico’s box, and his powerful left-footed strike beat Jan Oblak.
Two minutes later, the hosts had a penalty shout waved off by French referee Clement Turpin. Rodrygo once again beat the Atletico defence, but Jose Gimenez was on hand to lunge into a tackle, which the home fans and players felt was illegal and should have resulted in a penalty.
Atletico, however, responded well, getting their equaliser in the 32nd minute through in-form Argentina forward Julian Alvarez, who got his seventh Champions League goal of the season.
The former Manchester City man scored a goal of the tournament contender, curling in a beautiful strike into the top corner after beating Eduardo Camavinga on the left side of Real’s box.
Both sides went into the halftime break with the scores deadlocked, but Diaz provided a moment of brilliance to put Los Blancos back in front 10 minutes after the restart.
The 25-year-old used his quick feet to dance through the Atletico defence, leaving Gimenez for dead inside the box before hitting a curling effort into the far bottom corner of Oblak’s goal.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men should have gotten a third goal in the dying embers of the game. Kylian Mbappe found some space on the right side of the box, but his cutback to Vinicius Jr. failed to reach the Brazilian, who was just in front of goal as Marcos Llorente made a timely intervention to clear the ball.
The resulting clearance, meanwhile, fell to Mbappe, who found Luka Modric at the edge of the box, but the Croatian’s effort was comfortably saved by Oblak.
Real Madrid held on for the win, their sixth against Atletico in the Champions League. The two sides will rekindle their rivalry in the return fixture next week at the Metropolitano Stadium.
