Same city, different planets: how Atléti finally caught up — and what 2014 cost them

The Madrid derby is older than most rivalries that get more international airtime. Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid first met on 2 December 1906 — Madrid won 2–1 in the Campeonato Regional Centro — and they have played each other 243 times since. Real lead the all-time series 119 wins to 61 with 63 draws, but the gap has never told the full story. Atlético's identity was forged as the club that refused to be absorbed: while every other Madrid side was folded into Real in the early 1900s, Atléti held its ground on the far bank of the Manzanares and built a counter-myth — working class, southern, bloody-minded.