Madrid divided: Dispatches from a Champions League quarter-final

Anti-Atletico songs proliferate, songs which Diego Simeone or his family would not appreciate. A group of American tourists watch attentively while struggling to work out the identity of the men wearing black, with old school adidas trainers. It’s not immediately obvious that they’re Real Madrid fans, but the police know all about the notorious Ultras Sur.

The group drink and sing, but never with abandon. They’re controlled, organised and familiar to each other. When a leader signals for silence, the group falls silent. When he signals that it’s time to go, they begin to walk two kilometres downhill towards the Vicente Calderon stadium. Police will escort the group, part of 2,500 travelling fans all the way into the double-tiered away end.

Outside the Calderon, thousands of fans in red and white have filled the roads around the shabby stadium which have been closed to traffic. They drink and sing in the early evening sun about being champions, singing songs which Cristiano Ronaldo and his family wouldn’t appreciate. Unpretentious bars are clad in red and white and posters of Atleti heroes. The current crop proliferate, though former idols like Radamel Falcao, Kun Aguero, David de Gea and Diego Forlan aren’t forgotten. The mood is happy and optimistic, until the Madrid ultras arrive and police are forced to create a buffer to keep rival fans apart.

Before last night’s match, the two Madrid giants had met six times this season and Real Madrid hadn’t won once. Atletico had a similar record against Barcelona last term and knocked the Catalans out of Europe at the quarter-final stage. Atletico beat their uptown neighbours 4-0 at home in February in the league, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side, with his best midfielders back, began with a purpose lacking then. Gareth Bale went clear through after three minutes and should have done better than to see Jan Oblak push his shot away.

It was the first of many important saves from the 22-year-old who signed last summer from Benfica for £12.6 million and was the club’s number two until an injury to Miguel Angel Moya in March. Oblak has been excellent, keeping three clean sheets in four league games in an unbeaten side. Somehow, he made that four against the European champions, keeping out six efforts in the first half and preventing what seemed like an inevitable goal. For all Madrid’s attacking dominance, no team thrives on the adversity of defending as much as Atletico. They don’t panic, they didn’t concede in another engrossing derby.

Atletico improved in the second period, something Simeone was happy to emphasise: “In the second half we looked more like the team we’ve been in recent years. The best thing was the reaction we had; any other team that had been damaged as we were in the first half would have ended up losing. But the game became much closer to what we had imagined at the start.”

Madrid haven’t scored in their last four visits to the Calderon, and but for Oblak it would have been very different in a feisty encounter which saw Mario Mandzukic battered and bloodied, the Croatian make more fouls than any other player and receive an elbow (not intentional) to the head from Sergio Ramos and a punch to the body (intentional) from Dani Carvajal.

“I didn’t see that,” says Simeone, “and I can’t talk to him (Mandzukic) about it because the language is difficult but he played a great game today. Mandzukic had a hard game and competed against Ramos and Varane who are extraordinary players.”

Despite speaking four languages including English, Oblak is reluctant to talk after the match. “He doesn’t enjoy doing media, doesn’t enjoy being in the spotlight,” explains a Slovenian journalist in the mixed zone who knows him personally but admits he’ll be lucky to get anything more than a handshake.

Madrid will need to score past Oblak in the return leg at the Bernabéu next Wednesday, when 4,000 travelling fans will be in the 80,000 crowd, yet Simeone’s men have won one and drawn two of their three visits to the Bernabeu this season and they’re now unbeaten in all seven games against them this term.

“Seven games?” asked Simeone when asked about his unbeaten record v Carlo Ancelotti so far. “I’d not focus on that because for 14 years we did not win (against Madrid) until for the (Copa del Rey) final when we won the cup. Next week will be a different game. It will be the classic game that we all like to play.”

“The result is not so good but we have confidence because of the game we played, especially in the first half,” opined Ancelotti. “They are one of the best teams in the world defending. So it is hard to score. We looked for the solution but in the first half Oblak did a great job. We didn’t finish well but those are small things. We have to do the same in the game next Wednesday.”

An hour after the game, the Madrid fans are led out of the stadium and ushered back towards the city centre. They see some Atletico players leaving and abuse them from close quarters until security ushers them away.

They also hold up all eight fingers and two thumbs to signify their 10 European Cups. Twice finalists Atleti haven’t won one and hate to be reminded that they were seconds away from a first against Madrid in Lisbon last May.

Sergio Ramos, the man who saved Madrid with a 93rd minute equaliser that night, stands on a milk crate and talks to the media about tough opponents, but a job well done. Iker Casillas, who broke Xavi’s appearance record in Europe with his 147th Champions League game, says it could have been so different had Bale scored.

Then Bale walks past, calves bulging, and ignores the travelling British media who’d quite like a word. Maybe he didn’t want to dwell on that missed chance in public.