For better or worse, Álvaro Morata is centrally involved in two of the iconic Madrids of all time. derby moments, something that will undoubtedly be floating in the forward’s mind ahead of Wednesday’s Spanish Super Cup semi-final between Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid (Stream LIVE at 1:30 pm ET on ESPN+) — a duel whose intensity has been magnified by the fact that the two clubs will meet again in the Copa del Rey on January 18.
For the better: it is Morata who deliberately blocks Atlético’s Diego Godín as the Uruguayan tries to run with Sergio Ramos when Madrid takes their corner kick in stoppage time of the 2014 Champions League final.
Atleti wins 1-0 (via Godín) and painfully, temptingly, there are only 2 minutes and 10 seconds left of that added time. At the perfect moment, Morata steps into Godin’s path (a combination of brilliant thinking and dark arts) and Ramos, suddenly freed, rises and scores an incredibly beautiful header into the postage-stamp-sized space between the right post and Thibaut Courtois’ goal. complete immersion. The whites they get out of control in extra time and the only Madrid in history derby The Champions League final is slipping out of Atleti’s hands.
Just a note here: Atleti is the club that Morata supported as a child, where he began his professional career and the club that enjoys the fanatical support of his grandfather. It is not a way to make yourself loved.
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To make matters worse: they are the last moments of the Spanish Super Cup final four years ago. Another Madrid derbybut this time Morata wears the red and white of Atleti.
We’re in overtime and there are exactly five minutes left. Atleti throw the ball outside their own area, Dani Carvajal poorly controls the ball that falls from the sky and when Saúl Ñíguez makes a well-weighted pass into the path of Morata, the striker’s deft first touch leaves him free, alone. with the opportunity to beat Courtois (Madrid’s goalkeeper that night) in a one-on-one match. Five minutes left. In a final.
I bet you remember it now and what happens next.
There is a Uruguayan revenge factor involved. Fede Valverde, although quick, is never going to catch Morata, so the midfielder lunges, legs fully extended, and brings down the Atleti centre-forward just before he is about to send the ball to Courtois. (Or just before he doesn’t: he defines you as someone who likes or hates Morata depending on the hypothetical conclusion you’ve come to.)
It’s an automatic red card, Valverde walks the path of shame and pride, Madrid endures the penalties and, of course they do, they win the shootout easily. Not only do they lift the trophy, but Valverde is named best player of the match.
Morata was left with sore legs, no medal and with ghosts in that famous ghost-infested head of his. Perhaps that represented a bit of extra passion when, the last time these two teams met, back in September, Morata scored two headed goals in a 3-1 victory. The whites Their only defeat in any competition so far this season?
That night, in a hectic, passionate and ultimately exultant Metropolitan stadium, Atleti’s three goals came from crosses from the left, and all three goals were scored with headers: Antoine Griezmann’s was sandwiched between Morata’s two , 31 years old.
That night Madrid had Lucas Vázquez as right back and David Alaba as left centre-back, both with impressive performances. Positionally, their GPS totally failed them, concentration kaputt and ultra-high guilt. Two hardcore, smart, “winning” players, but a terrible day at the office.
This week neither of them are in the squad: Lucas is injured in the short term, while Alaba faces a long and tough recovery from a knee injury. The man in charge of avoiding Atleti’s left wing crosses, of which Morata will be hungry, will be right back Carvajal; The man tasked with cajoling, barging in and intimidating Morata out of the game at centre-half will be Nacho, and those events deserve a backstory.
For a long time, Morata was the guy with all the skill, athleticism and physicality, but very little kill-or-be-killed mentality. In short, he liked to please. He was a genuinely warm, sociable, fun and youthful guy. But when things got really demanding, super high pressure, or just plain nasty and dirty…he had weaknesses. Carvajal, Nacho and Morata share a past, and those frailties are what the Madrid couple will use, relentlessly, to try to dissuade Atleti’s top scorer this season.
It has been just seven months since the three men together lifted the Spanish team’s first trophy since 2012, the Nations League victory against Croatia in Rotterdam. Of course, it was not a totally new sensation: the trio won the Under-21 European Championship together in 2013, while Morata and Carvajal were in the Spanish team that triumphed in the Under-19 European Championship two years earlier. Nacho was with Morata when he debuted with Real Madrid Castilla (the last youth stage before the first team) and also when the forward, who was 20 years old at the time, scored his first goal with the first team (for José Mourinho) on the field of the I raised.
These are three people from Madrid, for whom a derby something like this feels of great importance: who debuted for The whites a couple of seasons apart, each of them products of the youth system of that club proudly called “Factory“(“La Fábrica”), but three men with very different destinies and personalities. The tactics do not matter, nor do the roles that Vinicius Jr., Valverde (again), Toni Kroos, Antonio Rüdiger, Koke, Griezmann will play. , Jan Oblak or Samuel Lino on Wednesday in this semi-final, but the duel between Carvajal, Nacho and Morata will be a real clash of mentalities.
Atleti’s tall, thin man is no less hungry for victory, but Madrid’s smaller, meaner men have the edge in ruthlessness. They are tough-minded and rough-mannered on the field: they compete to the limits of the laws. Morata wasn’t like that, but the fact that his Atleti-mad grandfather actually stopped talking to him when he signed for Madrid suggests there is value somewhere in his DNA.
What has happened to this hugely underrated striker, who shares a 33-goal season in all competitions with Griezmann, is that the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune have turned him into a much fiercer competitor in recent years. He admits that throughout a career full of ups and downs, there have been a handful of occasions when, psychologically devastated and feeling weakened, he considered quitting football early. Sports psychology has changed him radically and now he is at his happiest and most prolific moment.
Regarding the offer of 42 million euros per season to play in Saudi Arabia, where unfortunately this Spanish Super Cup is being played, he recently said on the radio program El Larguero: “Everyone in the club knows that beyond what [Diego] Simeone told me to convince me to stay, the truth is that I am dying to win a trophy with Atleti. That would be worth more than ‘more money’, that would be worth more than playing in other countries where I could be more ‘comfortable’ because they would treat me differently than here in Spain.
“The most important thing that made me decide to stay at Atleti last summer was the idea of lifting a trophy with them.”
This week Lucas and Alaba will not be there, but the same referee will be there, Alberola Rojas, who directed that last Madrid derbysomething you are already doing The whites a little sarcastic. Real Madrid TV reported that “after all the mistakes that Madrid made in recent derbyat the Metropolitano, in the team’s only defeat this season, they take charge of the Super Cup semi-final.” The tone is set.
Given the current performance levels of The whites and The Red and Whites, it is evident that this should be nothing more than a victory for Madrid. And given the current form of Osasuna and Barcelona (who compete in the other semi-final, on Thursday), whoever wins this first match stands firmly as a likely winner of Spain’s first trophy of the season.
However, the “no friends on the pitch” battle between Carvajal, Nacho and Morata will not only add an extra frisson of interest to the clash, but could go a long way to determining which of Madrid’s two biggest clubs comes through. to Sunday’s final. Try not to miss it if you can help it.
