When Atletico play Real, it's fair to say the Madrid air burns with the virulent hate and passionate anger that they harbour for each other.
Atletico see themselves as the underdogs; and take great pride in that fact; while Real... ah! The whole world knows that they take the “Royal” in Real Madrid quite literally (For the uninitiated, Real is Royal in Spanish).
No two players epitomise this philosophy like Koke and Cristiano Ronaldo. Koke is quiet, unobtrusive and goes about his job without the fuss while Ronaldo is loud, in-your-face and well, the man redefines football glamour, doesn't he?
So when the two got into an altercation the spirits of the two clubs were channeled into the two players.
Koke: “Eres un maricon”... You're a faggot
If that had been us out there, we'd have replied with great wit, panache, and flair with... “erm... nooo... You are the faggot. Hah. Take that”
Trust Ronaldo to respond in a slightly better way... and make us look like common folk. As per reports, this is what he said –
Cristiano: “Soy millonario”... I'm a millionaire
Some Aloe Vera for that burn Senor Koke?
He followed that up by scoring a free kick (albeit a deflected one), winning and then scoring a penalty, and putting in one of his lung-bursting runs to match Gareth Bale and then get on the end of the Welshman's delicious cross to tap it in.
His 39th career hat-trick and Koke's Atletico lay dead and buried on the night, having lost the last Madrid derby to be held at Vicente Calderon 3-0. Fair to say Ronaldo got the best of that little altercation – both verbally, and on the pitch.
Atletico need to address inconsistency
Koke and his mates have quite a bit to worry about, having slipped to sixth – and with 21 points in 12 games, they are nine points adrift of Real Madrid who sit pretty atop the La Liga table. (Real also have a four point advantage over Barcelona).
They've already lost 3 games and have conceded 11 goals in the 12 matches; considering they conceded only 18 in the 38 games last season it appears the wheels are falling off Diego Simeone's brilliant defensive unit. They need a run of results to go their way if they are to make anything of this campaign, and need to get rid of the atypical inconsistency that has handicapped their season – winning one day against Bayern Munich and losing the next to Real Sociedad is not the El Cholo way.
Their next five fixtures are against PSV Eindhoven (UCL), Osasuna (La Liga), Guijuelo (Copa del Rey), Espanyol (La Liga) and Bayern Munich (UCL).
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