The match that was billed as a battle of the superheroes ended without a winner, all set up for a sequel instead. Kylian Mbappé and Julián Álvarez had looked out from Madrid’s front pages on the morning of the city derby, the media turning Marvel Comic, and they will probably be there on Sunday too but this isn’t over. The man they liken to a Mutant Turtle and the striker they call The Spider scored one each as another derby finished 1-1, leaving these two great rivals first and second in La Liga, a single point between them, left to fight another day.

Between them Mbappé and Álvarez had already scored 37 goals in their debut seasons; on a night that took a while to get going but did eventually become a real contest if certainly not a classic, they took that to 39. Atlético started in the ascendency then Real were revived.