Julian Alvarez scored twice when Atletico came from behind and gave the first defeat of the season in the real city rivals.
Released on September 27, 2025
Julian Alvarez scored twice as Atletico Madrid came from behind. City rival Real Madrid handed the Laliga leader their first defeat after a perfect start to the season.
A thrilling encounter at the raucous Metropolitano Stadium led Atletico to fight back from 2-1, claiming a memorable victory that brought them to fourth place with 12 points.
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Real Madrid is the top of the La Liga with 18 points, with two Barcelona winning the match.
Atletico’s offensive start was rewarded when Robin Le Normande opened up a goal with a header in the 14th minute.
However, Kylian Mbappe exploded to level on an unstoppable strike from close range at the quick counter in 25 minutes, and Arda Guller netted a volley from a Vinicius JR cross 11 minutes later to place visitors in front of him.
Alexander Sollos’ header gave Atletico a boost before the break, regaining the lead in the second half for five minutes, and regaining the lead in the second half when Alvarez retrieved the penalty after a high boot of Garler was clipped to the face inside the box.
Alvarez extended the lead with a sublime free kick to the top corner in the 64th minute, alternative Antoine Griezmann sealed the victory at the quick counter with additional time.
Alvarez’s performance was sweet red after his controversial double-kick penalty contributed to Atletico, who lost to Madrid in the Champions League last season.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico treated Xabi Alonso the first loss of the season after Madrid won six LA La Liga games and all of its Champions League openers. Alonso has had other losses since taking over as Madrid’s coach in the summer and facing Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup in July.
Barcelona will be able to overtake leader Madrid by winning at Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Real Madrid coach Alonso admitted that his side deserves to lose the game.
“We weren’t good at everything. We couldn’t connect passes, we couldn’t win duels, we couldn’t create opportunities,” he said.
“We need to analyze what happened and get better.”
The Madrid coach looked at the rest of the season and tried to find a positive defeat from this painful defeat.
“It’s a process,” he said. “We’re in the stage of building our identity. It certainly gets better.”
