Real Madrid lost at the Metropolitano for reasons that have nothing to do with the story Real Madrid TV is selling. Dean Huijsen hauled down a striker who was clean through. Jose Mourinho picked a midfield that got swallowed whole. And yes, the officials let Atlético off a red card at the other end. Three failures. Only one belongs to the referee.
Start with the moment everyone points at. In the 52nd minute Huijsen dragged back Giuliano Simeone inside the box, the referee gave the penalty and, after the monitor, upgraded the yellow to a straight red for a last-man foul. Alex Grimaldo buried the spot-kick, Jonathan David added the second, and Antonio Rüdiger's header from a Bernardo Silva free-kick in the 89th minute only made the finish nervy. Spain's refereeing committee, the CTA, later backed that sending-off as correct. A centre-back pulling down a forward through on goal is a last-man foul in every manual ever written. That part of the grievance is dead. Blame Huijsen.
The CTA also admitted its own man got one badly wrong: Lee Kang-in should have been sent off for a challenge on Federico Valverde, a tackle the committee described as studs into the leg with a high risk of injury. Valverde was hurt on it and faced weeks out. So from the 52nd minute on, Real played most of the second half a man down while Atlético kept a man they shouldn't have had. That's a real, documented injustice, and anyone pretending it didn't shape the closing stages is lying to you.
Real Madrid were being beaten before Huijsen walked. Mourinho paired Valverde and Tchouaméni in a double pivot, and the two of them managed just 55 passes between them across 71 minutes together. Atlético's Koke, on for only the second half, passed more than that pair combined. Eleven against eleven, Real had no control of the ball and no idea how to get it. Atlético finished with 62% possession and outshot them 16 to 8. Real's attacking numbers cratered to 0.32 xG, the lowest they'd managed in a La Liga match since February 2015. Mbappé, Vinícius and Bellingham were all on the pitch for that. That's a coaching plan that wasn't working at full strength, against a side that then got a free man.
Mourinho stood up afterwards with printed photographs and called Ortiz Arias "a poor referee who's only ever done minor matches." Fine, bring the pictures, the Lee Kang-in call deserves the heat. But the photos don't explain why his own midfield was a passenger before the red card. And they don't change the fact that the CTA defended the Romero non-dismissal that Real also wanted overturned. Real Madrid TV went looking for a conspiracy. They got one confirmed error.
The truth is uncomfortable for everyone shouting about it. Real were wronged at one end and genuinely bad at the other. Atlético beat ten men comfortably and would probably have beaten eleven. New manager, early-season team, a derby that always turns ugly: all real, none of it an alibi for a double pivot that couldn't string passes together.
Real Madrid got outcoached, undone by their own defender, and shortchanged by one bad call that made an already bad day worse. If you want someone to be furious at, start with the men in white before you reach for the man with the whistle.
