Champions League: Real Madrid earn 2-1 advantage over Atletico Madrid
What's the story
Brahim Diaz was instrumental in handing Real Madrid a narrow 2-1 win over city rivals Atletico Madrid, in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.
The match witnessed Rodrygo giving the hosts an early lead within four minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Atletico quickly found their footing in the match and leveled the score in the 32nd minute.
The match turned decisive in the 55th minute when Diaz fired a low shot into the far corner.
1-1
1-1 at the break with goals from Rodrygo and Alvarez
Rodrygo helped Real get the lead inside when he sprinted past Javi Galan and made his way inside before bending a wonderful hit past Jan Oblak.
Alvarez. who moved to Atletico in the summer, scored a superb equalizer. He picked up the ball on the left side of the box and outmaneuvered Eduardo Camavinga before delivering a spectacular curling strike around Thibaut Courtois into the post.
Notably, this was Alvarez's seventh goal in nine appearances this season in Champions League.
Match-winner
Diaz's decisive goal secures win for Real Madrid
10 minutes into the 2nd half, Diaz, deftly weaved past Atletico defender Jose Gimenez before beating Oblak with a stunning strike. Ferland Mendy provided the assist.
Notably, Diaz was booked for excessive celebration.
The 25-year-old midfielder had stepped up for Los Blancos in Jude Bellingham's absence. This was after the England international was serving a one-game suspension, picking up his his third yellow card in the competition against Manchester City earlier this month.
Information
Here are the match stats
The hosts had 7 shots on target from 13 attempts. Diego Simeone's men managed two shots on target from six attempts. Real had 52% ball possession and a 92% pass accuracy from 642 passes.
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Real make history
As per Opta, excluding qualifiers, Real have achieved their 300th European Cup/Champions League victory (G498 D85 L113), at least 63 more than any other team in the history of the competition (Bayern Munich, 237 wins in 398 matches).
Opta stats
Key records scripted by Diaz and Alvarez
Díaz is now the fifth Real Madrid player to score in three different competitions against Atlttico in the 21st century, after Sergio Ramos (four), Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Rodrygo.
On the other hand, Alvarez became the third Atletico Madrid player to score in two successive derbies against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu between all competitions in the 21st century, after Diego Forlan in 2010 and Antoine Griezmann in 2017.