Eighteen-year-old Alvaro Rodriguez rescued a point for Real Madrid, who drew 1-1 with cross-town rivals Atletico Madrid on Saturday night.
LaLiga
Result: Real Madrid 1-1 Atletico Madrid
Date: 25 February 2023
Venue: Santiago Bernabeu
Carlo Ancelotti made four changes from the win over Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League this week, with Nacho, Toni Kroos, Dani Ceballos and Marco Asensio all recalled.
Atletico, meanwhile, were not involved in midweek action as Stefan Savic, Pablo Barrios and Saul Niguez were handed starts.
Asensio nearly got the home side off to a fine start as his curling effort from distance forced goalkeeper Jan Oblak into a fine save on ten minutes.
Atletico coach Diego Simeone was forced to make a change on 25 minutes when Joaquin Gimenez was unable to continue. He was replaced by Reinaldo in the defence.
It was quite a cagey affair thereafter, despite Los Blancos enjoying more of the possession as the visitors were quite content to sit back and soak up the pressure.
After a goalless first half, Simeone looked to his bench start at the start of the second half as Angel Correa replaced Barrios.
The second half continued in similar fashion to the first half, which prompted Ancelotti to throw on Luka Modric, Eduoard Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouaméni.
The game came to life on 64 minutes when Atletico were reduced to ten men after Correa was shown a straight red card for an elbow on Antonio Rudiger.
Despite being down to ten men, Atletico found the breakthrough in the 78th minute through Jose Gimenez, who sent a fine header past Thibaut Courtois from Antoine Griezmann's cross.
The home side weren't behind for too long as as the young Alvaro Rodriguez got his first LaLiga goal by nodding home a corner from Modric on 85 minutes.
That would prove to be the final goal of the encounter, as Los Blancos were unable to find a way past Atletico and had to settle for a draw, which leaves the side seven points behind leaders FC Barcelona.
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