Diego Simeone said it had been a special week in Madrid, a “tremendous energy about the city”, and it closed the way he wanted. He had enjoyed the Formula One, he said, and he had enjoyed going to see Shakira. He enjoyed this even more, at least he did by the time the last of many, many blows on the referee’s whistle brought it to an end, sending him sprinting up the tunnel punching the air. Two-nil up against 10 men through goals from Álex Grimaldo and Jonathan David, seemingly in control, a late strike from Antonio Rüdiger awoke old ghosts and brought tension to the final minutes, but they had done it.

“A lot has happened in Madrid this week but this was the only thing that mattered in his mind and mine,” Atlético’s goalkeeper, Jan Oblak, said. José Mourinho’s first derby back ended in defeat and recriminations: he turned up at the press conference with a picture of two moments in which he felt that Atlético players – Lee Kang-in and Cristian Romero – should have been sent off, and insisting that the story of the derby was there. And yet there are other questions: over the way Dean Huijsen gave away the penalty and got the red card that tilted the game against them, and the way Real played. How little they did until that moment when, briefly, they appeared to have a lifeline.

A familiar foe had defeated him. It is 13 years since these managers met in this fixture, their last time the day that Atlético finally broke a curse and won the Copa del Rey at the Santiago Bernabéu. That night, Mourinho was sent off and didn’t go to get his runner’s-up medal from the king as Atlético won their first derby in 13 years. His return to Real Madrid has been driven in part by nostalgia and it was like old times in the press room. At times in the first half here it was like old times too. Which were not always good. Mourinho and Simeone are “companions of war”, the Real manager had said, and so it was.

Twenty minutes passed before the first shot, Aurélien Tchouaméni striking over from 25 yards, and it wasn’t until the 39th that there was one on target. That came, perhaps inevitably, from outside the area and Oblak pushed Arda Guler’s effort away. Otherwise, not a huge amount else was happening. Not when it came to actual football, anyway: it had been heating up almost from the beginning, Guler the first to confront the referee after he was fouled by Álex Baena. To which he would respond by fouling Baena back.

From the bench, something was said and Simeone was booked; the scene was set. This was a battle played out down there as much as out on the pitch, where it was tough and tight. When Lee went looking for David with a cross towards the back post after quarter of an hour, it was the closest anyone had got, physically, to either goal, and immediately Real broke up the right. The roar that greeted Marc Pubill’s tackle to take out Kylian Mbappé said something about the fear it was in transition that Atlético would be caught. The fear or, from Mourinho’s point of view, the hope. The plan, in fact, and they would wait for the moment.

The hosts had more of the ball and the territory but they tended to approach with caution. The lines of white shirts before them didn’t offer them the space to run into, so they were inclined to go to wide, which almost always meant the right wing. Another advance on that side led to a moment soon after when Ibrahima Konaté’s moment of doubt saw David take the ball from him inside the area, leading to Giuliano Simeone flashing wide. Then Thibaut Courtois had to dive to push a Lee cross away. At the other end Vinícius Júnior shot over twice – both over, both from distance – before the half’s most significant moment. Which, appropriately, wasn’t about the play.

Instead, Jude Bellingham slid in to tackle Romero and the referee showed him a red. Bellingham was incensed, his teammates and Real Madrid’s bench were too, and the video assistant referee was engaged. The referee, Miguel Ángel Ortiz, who was struggling to control this, was called to the screen to watch it again. There, he saw Romero’s studs hit Bellingham’s knee. The decision was rescinded, the Englishman’s card taken away. Atlético felt it should have been red. When Lee’s studs went in on Federico Valverde, Real did too.

Confrontations continued, angry words were exchanged, but as they went off at half-time, chances didn’t come with them. Two red cards did now: at half-time Atlético’s goalkeeper coach and Real’s assistant were sent off.

The second half began with Koke introduced and Baena immediately forcing a save. It was Atlético’s first shot on target, and it was the start of an entirely different game. Their second shot soon after would give them the lead, and an advantage that was even bigger than that. A long ball over the top from David Hancko dropped out of the sky and into the run of Simeone and, as he tried to bring it down and head into the area, Dean Huijsen dragged him down. Ortiz pointed to the spot; he was also called to the VAR screen again. Not to overturn the penalty, that could not have been clearer, but to change the colour of the card. Huijsen walked, Grimaldo scored and the Metropolitano exploded.

You suspected that Mourinho would too. First, he removed Guler and Vinícius to introduce Yan Diomandé and Rüdiger. Vinícius had done little, racking up just 22 touches, and a readjustment was required but there have been times when decisions like that – the Brazilian’s removal late in last year’s clásico, on a night that Real Madrid actually won, was the beginning of the end for Xabi Alonso – have caused splits. What this does is yet to be seen. The change didn’t have any real impact, either. Instead, Atlético doubled the lead. Again, it came from the right where Lee, who was outstanding, worked it to Simeone. His low cross, bent behind Madrid’s back four, was perfect. Six yards out, David turned it in.

David was withdrawn immediately, Julián Alvarez replacing him to whistles from the home fans. Still Atlético came, and the Argentinian so nearly had the third when Courtois made an extraordinary save from Romero and as the ball dropped Konaté rescued Madrid twice, the second time clearing off the line from Alvarez. Simeone smelt blood – Ademola Lookman was introduced too. Real Madrid, it seemed, could do nothing. Oblak barely saw them. Not once in that second half did Real touch the ball in his area, until they scored in the 89th minute. Kylian Mbappé barely touched the ball anywhere. Inside Atlético’s half, a pigeon sat pecking at the grass for a good few minutes, uninterrupted by even the briefest of counterattacks.

When Diomandé at last got away with 15 minutes to go, Oblak saved a shot that was hit straight at him, the opportunity to maybe make a match of the final minutes wasted. Or so it seemed. From a dead ball, Rüdiger headed in to give them a hope, a few minutes of a rebellion that was brief and incomplete, unlike Simeone’s week.