Real Madrid legend warns of 'monster revived' following Atletico demolition

Martin Macdonald

• 29 Sep 2025 07:00 CDT
• 2 min read

News

Real Madrid legend Jorge Valdano believes a "monster" has been revived following Los Blancos' heavy defeat in the Madrid derby versus Atletico.

In an entertaining first half at the Wanda Metropolitano, Robin Le Normand opened the scoring for the hosts only for Real Madrid to turn the scoreline around thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe and Arda Guler.

On the stroke of half-time, Alexander Sorloth nodded home an equaliser and that served as the base for a superb second period for Diego Simeone's men.

Julian Alvarez scored a penalty and a free-kick, while Antoine Griezmann added an exclamation point to the scoreline with a cool finish in injury time to make it 5-2.

Valdano believes Real Madrid will now have the fear of conceding a handful of goals each time they visit Atetico or Barcelona and blamed their poor handling of crosses into the area as a major factor in the loss.

"Last night that monster was revived," he said on Movistar + on Sunday.

"The monster of visiting Barcelona or being visited by Barcelona and conceding four goals was revived. Atletico ended up dominating Real Madrid in a way we haven't seen in a long time.

"Real Madrid didn't play with the same intensity as Atletico Madrid. Atletico clearly won the match up front. Every cross was a drama, a real drama for Madrid."

Any optimism for Real Madrid?

There was actually some decent attacking play from Real Madrid, particularly via Mbappe and Guler, while Vinicius Junior provided a fine cross into the box for the Turkey star to score.

That, at least, was cause for optimism for Valdano.

"Even so, a single brilliant contact, with tremendous precision and speed between Guler and Mbappe, put the score at an equaliser. And then Madrid went ahead with an extraordinary move from Vinicius," the Madrid legend explained.

"That gave me the feeling that for the second half, it helped us understand that if Real Madrid got connected a little, they could win the game."

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