Gonzalo Higuain scored an injury-time penalty to earn Real Madrid a 2-1 away victory over Atletico Madrid in the city derby on Saturday. The Argentine buried a spot kick in the last minute, just after Portugal winger Simao Sabrosa had grabbed an 89th-minute equaliser for Atletico with a freekick. Atletico have not beaten their neighbours since June 1999 and were trailing after only 40 seconds when the Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy netted from distance. The home side had defender Luis Perea sent off, and Van Nistelrooy followed him for another red card before the break. With both sides reduced to 10 men, Atletico pressed hard and looked to have at least grabbed a point at the end, before John Heitinga tripped Royston Drenthe in the area for the penalty in the 97th minute. “We have proven many times that we are capable of scoring goals right up to the last minute,” said Real coach Bernd Schuster, who went on to criticise the referee. “Van Nistelrooy’s sending off was clearly a case of compensating the other side. It was because of the referee we didn’t win 5-1.” Real made it six unbeaten matches in the league, while Atletico have now slumped to three defeats in a row. In the late game, Villarreal were held to a 0-0 draw at Espanyol that put them one point clear at the top, ahead of Real and Valencia. Valencia host Numancia on Sunday when Barcelona visit Athletic Bilbao. At the Calderon, there appeared to be little on for Van Nistelrooy when he received the ball with his back to goal in the first minute, but he was given space to turn and surprised Leo Franco at his near post. Wesley Sneijder then hit the bar and Sergio Aguero replied for the home side hitting the post soon after. The game was thrown open when Perea was red-carded after he caught Sneijder in the face with a flailing arm. But Van Nistelrooy soon followed after the referee harshly showed him a red for clumsily upending Maniche. Atletico pressed on after the break but struggled to beat Iker Casillas until they won a freekick on the edge of the area at the end. Simao curled it over the wall to spark wild celebrations on the pitch and in the stands. But it only lasted a few minutes and there was a sense of inevitability as Atletico went on to concede the penalty deep into injury time. “Simao’s goal was just reward for our audacity after the break, but it is devastating to concede a goal in the first and 96th minutes,” said Atletico coach Javier Aguirre.

It’s the 143^rd edition of El Derbi Madrileño and very likely to be dubbed the Redemption Derby. It has been a testing week for the two Madrid clubs, and the city in general, as the issue over racism and crowd violence in the country spills into overdrive.

The Week That Was

What a tumultuous few weeks it has been for Atlético Madrid. Just a month ago, everything was rosy for the rojiblancos. They were charming fans and pundits all over the world with their delightful football, they were starting to look like genuine title contenders, their collection of star players were finally coming good and it seemed as though nothing could go wrong for them.

But it did… all in a space of around a fortnight.

On the pitch, they suffered their first real setback of the season when they slumped to a 0-2 home defeat to Sevilla three weeks ago. That was promptly followed by the 6-1 annihilation at Barcelona, a much-hyped and much-talked about encounter which they lost inside the opening eight minutes.   

If that wasn’t enough to send the club into a tail spin, they then had to face the scrutiny of the world when UEFA decided to not only ban the team from playing at the Vicente Calderón in their next three Champions League home games, but the European football governing body also suspended coach Javier Aguirre from taking the bench for the next two matches due to unsporting behaviour.

Although Atleti have since been allowed to host Liverpool at the Calderón this coming Wednesday in Europe’s blue-ribbon competition, all these distractions and bad publicity off the pitch cannot be good for the team’s morale as they attempt to recover from the horror show at the Camp Nou.

A Royal Pain

Ofcourse, Real Madrid were not completely immuned from their fair share of controversy over the past few days, although for once, the issue was instigated by someone else and club themselves played no part in it.

Earlier in the week, the English Football Association publicly announced that they will refuse an invitation for an international friendly against Spain if the game were to take place at Madrid’s own Santiago Bernabéu, citing the possibility of racial abuse on their players as the main reason.

Just goes to show that sometimes, trouble follows you wherever you go. But this is something that should not bother the men in white nor affect their performance on the pitch, although it has struck another blow to the club’s image and reputation following their infamous absurdities during the summer transfer window.

On the field, however, they did suffer a minor hiccup a fortnight ago. After putting together a phenomenal six game winning streak throughout the entire month of September, they stumbled to a 2-2 draw at home against Espanyol in a match where they had to come from behind twice to salvage a point.

The blip in the result and the performance is hardly a matter of life and death – or in Madrid’s case, emergency meetings – but it did put a dent on the momentum they had been hoping to carry forth into this clash.

Redemption

The derbi could serve as the perfect tonic for both teams to bounce back in style. And the best way to silence the critics is to let the football do the talking and by putting on a real exhibition on the field.

Both sides will be eager to get back on the winning trail as quickly as possible to prevent the leading pack from skipping any further ahead and to avoid their confidence sliding any further down. But more importantly, they need that extra injection of morale to take with them to their respective daunting Champions League excursions next week.

As the luck of the draw would have it, the two capital clubs have the most enthralling fixtures of Matchday Three. Los Colchoneros, ofcourse have that mouth-watering battle with a Fernando Torres-less Liverpool while Los Merengues will travel to Turin to take on one of their fiercest and oldest continental rivals, Juventus.

Those are the kind of match-ups that would normally distract any team from their domestic duties on any other week. But such is the significance of El Derbi, from a historical standpoint to the proverbial bragging rights on offer to the obvious three points at stake, that the build-up to those European midweek games has been shoved to the back seat.

But by the end of the 90 minutes at the Vicente Calderón on Saturday, there can be only one who will walk off the field with a true sense of redemption. Trouble is, both of them want that luxury.

The Real Madrid full-back faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering a slight fracture on his right thigh.

The 20 year old, who has only started one match for Los Merengues this season, was injured in Spain's under-21 match on Tuesday night and faces up to a month on the sidelines.

The versatile youngster is on the periphy of first-team action at the Santiago Bernabeu, but this setback has put a dent on his hopes of displacing Marcelo or Sergio Ramos from their defensive positions.

Spain had been competing in the Under-21 European Championship playoffs against Switzerland when Torres was injured chasing back to help his side. The doctors at Madrid have assessed the problem and in order to heal the injury correctly, the player will be out of contention until at least the home clash versus Recreativo on the 23rd of November.

Torres joins Arjen Robben and Fernando Gago on the treatment table, while Guti and Wesley Sneijder are fighting back to full fitness. Schuster played a part in Holland's victory over Norway in midweek, while Guti should also be in contention to at least take a place on the bench for the match versus Atletico Madrid on Saturday evening.

Bernd Schuster does not yet know who will be fit to play in the derby clash this weekend with Mahamadou Diarrá, Arjen Robben and Guti still doubts for the match.

Guti, Mahamadou Diarrá and Arjen Robben continued their battle to recover full fitness before the derby this weekend as they worked in the gym rather than with the rest of the team today.

The trio didn't step out onto the training ground but midfielder Fernando Gago did and it looks as though he will start the match against Atlético Madrid on Saturday.

The Argentine has been recovering from injury but he worked with the rest of the team today and all the signs point to him being in the starting XI.

His recovery will be good news for Bernd Schuster who, with Guti, Diarrá and Robben all potentially out injured, is looking a little short in the midfield department.

Real Madrid will welcome back their international players on Friday and they will train with the rest of the squad as they ready themselves for the match at the Vicente Calderón.