COLUMN: The 4th derby, Real Madrid’s weakness and Diego Simeone’s philosophical betrayal in 4 takeaways

Diego Simeone called it “strange,” and confessed his Atletico Madrid team were outplayed. Carlo Ancelotti believed his Real Madrid side were superior – if not vastly – and deserved to win Sunday’s admittedly weird city derby.

But when Marcos Llorente stuck a bullet header underneath Andriy Lunin’s crossbar with 92:39 on the clock, the Santiago Bernabeu – roof closed to seal in the noise – fell silent, most of the 76,732 fans in attendance stunned that Los Blancos had not been able to see out a nervy 1-0 win in El Derbi Madrileno and thus move four points clear atop La Liga.

With Real Madrid pushing for a league and Champions League double – and Atletico’s focus firmly on ending its 11-year Copa del Rey drought – this derby was the first one in a while that arguably meant more to Los Blancos than it did to Los Rojiblancos. A point aside does not really help either team – Madrid could slip into second place next week, while Atleti missed an opportunity to widen the gap to fifth place – but there remains plenty to talk about even from a “decaffeinated” derby.

Brahim Diaz’s stunning goal on 20 minutes looked for a while as if it would be the derby’s decisive strike, but it always felt as if Atletico could find a goal of their own if they were able to raise the intensity level to match Real Madrid.

Los Rojiblancos controversially had a 48th-minute equaliser ruled out, Stefan Savic’s header negated as Saul Niguez was ruled to have blocked Lunin’s view of the ball. And even in the final minutes, when Atleti lined up in a convoluted 3-4-3 with Llorente and Pablo Barrios as the central midfielders, the visitors moved into dangerous positions and knew they could destabilise the hosts’ fragile defense by winning aerial duels around the