Morata dominates the skies to win derby – and recognition – for Atlético

For one brief moment it looked like Álvaro Morata was going to do a Cristiano Ronaldo but this wasn’t the time and it definitely wasn’t the place, and somewhere in the middle of another leap into the Madrid sky his celebration became something else. No siuu, just screaming. Landing in the northwest corner of the Metropolitano, where the noise was unlike anything they had heard here before, he opened his arms for Samuel Lino to jump in. Three minutes gone and he had already scored the goal that opened the derby; 33 seconds into the second half, he scored the goal that closed it. Which was when Diego Simeone blew him a kiss.

“This is the Morata we need,” Atlético Madrid’s coach said after. “We know he can do it.”

What he had done was execute the plan to perfection, jumping for two headers on the way to a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid that kept Atlético alive in the league and was played out to olés and anthems, Simeone wildly conducting 69,082 people. The second the full-time whistle goes, the coach normally turns and runs straight up the tunnel. This time, though, he waited for his players as they bounced about in front of the south stand and set off on a lap of honour, applauded by the biggest crowd the Metropolitano has seen. That’s how good it was, how much it mattered. “What. A. Night,” as Saúl Ñíguez put it.

Related: Cast aside by Germany, Timo Werner is taking the high road with Leipzig | Andy Brassell

“I was on the verge of shedding a tear,” Antoine Griezmann said. Then, before departing, he turned to the camera, pointed and added a line Morata and Simeone used too: “kids, wear your Atlético shirts to school tomorrow.” Before the game a huge banner borrowed a line from Joaquin Sabina to declare they had more than enough reasons to be atléticos, and here was another, unexpected one. A victory which rescued them from slipping 11 points behind already, which was only their second in 15 derbies – the other had been against a Madrid team with a Champions League final on their mind and key players on the bench – and which was deserved too. “A Great Atlético,” ran the cover of Marca.

Inside, its match report began: “This was the return of Atlético Aviacion, the team that dominates the skies and destroys the enemy with precise, devastating attacks from upon high.” Three headers did it: two from Morata, one from Griezmann. Atletico’s goals were “photocopies”, Carlo Ancelotti conceded. “It’s good that we play like this,” Morata said.

For 35 minutes Atlético tore into Madrid, scoring twice, the stampede obligingly offered the whole savanna. For 10 or so after Toni Kroos scored a very Toni Kroos goal, they faced the familiar fear of another Madrid comeback. This was the fourth league game in which Madrid had conceded first, and early. Against Almería, after three minutes; against Getafe, after 11; against Real Sociedad, after five; now against Atlético, after four. Even against Celta they conceded after two only for a benevolent VAR review to rescue them. They had turned all of those around but when Morata scored here, it was done. There were plenty of long shots, lots of corners too, but not much imagination. “Other times we came back but the 3-1 was too much; it ended it,” Ancelotti said.

“This was incredible. I’m so happy for these people,” Morata said.

This was not just about him. Nahuel Molina raced up the right. On the left, Samuel Lino was superb, involved in the first two goals, his cross for the opener exceptional. Saúl, excellent throughout, provided lovely deliveries for two of the three. And Griezmann was, well, Griezmann. Left-back one minute, heading in the very same minute, there may be no star player anywhere who does the work he does, a player Simeone said others should “copy”. Yet it was hard not to be drawn to Morata.

Named man of the match, as one headline had it: “Morata flies above Madrid.” His two goals made him la Liga’s joint top scorer and, seven attempts later, finally secured his first derby win for the team he watched as a kid and where he was once a ballboy. Of course, he had won derbies before – in the European Cup final in Lisbon, for a start – but that was on the other side and that’s part of the point. When he joined Atlético, Morata said it was a pity that he had had to visit the Calderón in other teams’ shirts. But that probably wasn’t really about turning his back on Madrid, where he came through the academy, although many naturally took it that way. It was more about a search for somewhere to truly belong. In fact, although the emotional ties made his boyhood club feel like it would be that place, it may not even really be about Atlético either, not entirely. It is more about him.

There is something about Morata: gentle, thoughtful, nice. Too nice, some said. Gigi Buffon once said he could be the best if he was stronger mentally. Doughy eyed and softly spoken, prepared to admit to his emotion and vulnerability, willing to talk about the pressure of an industry that hasn’t always been to his likening, at times it has felt like he has been on an endless search for a happiness that has always been just out of reach. He is 30, he has won six cups, four leagues and two Champions Leagues across three of the biggest clubs in the three biggest leagues in Europe, he has scored more than 200 goals, and is Spain’s first-choice striker running at a goal every other game. And yet somehow it feels like he’s still not found his place. Still not been embraced, perhaps. Still not been recognised, let alone celebrated, resistance always lingering.

His career path tells a story, laid out simply. From Madrid to Juventus and back. The move to Chelsea, where they hoped he could be Diego Costa but he wasn’t because he isn’t. From Atlético to Juventus and back. The choices weren’t always his and he was prepared to burst the myth of player power but each time he expressed his hope that this would be the place, somewhere he can be the player that’s in there somewhere. His place, somewhere he could be happy, that could be home; a place he needed. Each time he said he was ready mentally now, that he had grown.

Sometimes he was that player, almost the perfect striker when it was his day. His performances in the post-pandemic mini-league come to mind. Yet then it wouldn’t be his day. Like Truman Burbank, he lived many false dawns. He got caught offside more than anyone else – he had 13 goals taken off him in 2020 alone – and he missed chances. It wasn’t even that he missed them that mattered; it was that the misses seemed to hurt so much. Maybe no more than any other striker – maybe – but it was externalised, you could see it on his face; because he was sincere, honest, because he admitted to the insecurities, you could hear him say it too. His statistics were good, sometimes very good, but he never reached 20 league goals. His totals read: 13, 9, 11, 12, 6, 5, 11, 15, 7, 8.

While some, most notably Luis Enrique, defended him tooth and nail, insisting there was so much more to his game, somehow that not quite sure lingered, that yeah, but. Plenty rated him, plenty more didn’t; at times you wondered if he was in the latter group. His grip on a starting slot never felt entirely secure, even when he was a regular starter. The temptation to seek an upgrade – which might be nothing of the sort – was always there. In a world like this, few are prepared to wait.

This summer again there was talk of a move – Juventus got mentioned, as they always are – and so did Saudi Arabia. Morata admitted the market couldn’t always be controlled, that there was a possibility of him going. But he was 30 and, he said, he sat with Simeone and assistant Gustavo López and they told him not to leave; he was going to be important. Maybe that was what he needed. He got a hat-trick in the international break and only Robert Lewandowski and Jude Bellingham have as many club goals now.

“If I’ve improved in anything, it’s that I am better prepared mentally,” Morata said at the start of the season. “It’s a pity that mental maturity comes when we’re almost ready to retire. Maybe I’m more mature, maybe my teammates see me differently, I don’t know. In the end I’m a person and things affect me. Those who know me know what I’ve been through in my life. I feel the support at Atlético more than ever and that helps. Many times in my career, I have felt like my work was recognised and others that it wasn’t.”

Alavés 0-2 Athletic Bilbao, Almeria 2-2 Valencia, Barcelona 3-2 Celta Vigo, Osasuna 0-0 Sevilla, Girona 5-3 Mallorca, Atlético Madrid 3-1 Real Madrid, Real Betis 1-1 Cádiz, Las Palmas 1-0 Granada, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Vaillarreal, Sociedad 4-3 Getafe

On Sunday night, as Simeone blew him a kiss and the Metropolitano stood as one to applaud Morata from the pitch, his work was recognised. It was also done, Atlético on their way to a derby victory that meant so much. “He was extraordinary, beyond the goals,” Simeone said. “He has the weapons he needs to reach the [goalscoring] figures that he’s searching for and that we need. And with the confidence and consistency that brings, hopefully he can keep this level up because he’s [an] important striker.”

“I can’t explain [how that feels], honestly,” Morata said. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve won, winning with the Atlético shirt has to be different. Our fans deserve those emotions. We gave everything on the pitch and they gave everything in the stands; that’s what we need. I need to feel important in the team and maybe this year I feel that more than any other year. I would love to win a trophy with Atlético.”

Winning a derby would do for a start.