The instant Shane struck the ball,
everything seemed to freeze.
For a moment, almost every sound in the stadium vanished.
Atlético and Real Madrid fans alike were all staring at the edge of the box.
Nearly everyone made the same motion, necks stretched forward, bodies leaning in.
The roaring stadium suddenly went quiet.
Then the ball crossed the line.
Everything changed.
Real Madrid fans looked terrified. They clutched their heads, mouths wide open, eyes fixed in disbelief, as if they had been struck dumb.
Atlético fans raised their hands.
Their smiles were impossible to hide.
And then they turned to hug whoever was next to them, no matter who it was.
At that moment,
they were no longer old men, middle-aged men, young men, old women, middle-aged women, or young women.
They had only one identity now:
people cheering for Atlético Madrid.
The cheers erupted from every Atlético fan.
They gathered in the stands and collided above the pitch, filling the sky.
It felt as if the whole world was shaking because of it.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!"
The commentators grabbed their microphones, stretching their voices until their necks stood out with veins as they roared.
"Goal! Goal! Shane... hat trick!! He is a Real Madrid killer! A killer of Real Madrid!"
"Beautiful! Beautiful! Look at that shot... ohhhhhh! My God!"
Amid the cheers,
Shane, who had blasted the ball into the net, turned and sprinted toward the corner flag, then slid on his knees.
He spread his arms wide, welcoming the storm of applause.
Atlético players came running from behind.
Substitutes and players on the pitch alike.
Everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Brilliant!"
Simeone dropped to his knees on the spot.
He clenched his fist and hammered it forward again and again like a machine gun.
The Argentine's roar sounded unbearably harsh in Mourinho's ears.
Mourinho frowned deeply.
He was not surprised by this scene.
After all,
reward and risk always come together.
He was not a finance expert, but he understood that any high-return investment comes with high risk.
Unless you were one of those people on social media who could casually say a few words and make the stock market tremble while making a fortune for yourself—
and at the moment, that kind of person did not exist yet, or at least no one openly did.
Real Madrid had looked terrifying.
Their high press really did make every Atlético pass feel dangerous.
But that also meant the space behind them would inevitably open up.
Before this,
Mourinho had hoped that after halftime's injection of motivation, and then the stimulus of scoring a goal,
Madrid could ride that wave of momentum
and score a second goal quickly.
Equalize the match.
But...
once Atlético had used Madrid's own press to break into the space behind them successfully,
would that momentum still remain?
Mourinho took a deep breath.
Actually, the situation now was almost the same as when the second half had just begun.
The only difference was that
Madrid had scored one goal.
So...
Mourinho had no intention of becoming conservative now.
Instead...
he wanted his team to keep attacking like mad.
"Attack! Attack! Keep attacking!"
Mourinho shouted at Xabi Alonso, grabbing him by the arm.
When it was time to go all in,
Mourinho knew how to go all in.
He stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at Xabi Alonso as he returned to the pitch.
Somehow,
Casillas, still wearing his substitute vest, had also come to the sideline, shouting at the Madrid players to lift their spirits.
...
As the game restarted,
Real Madrid's attack remained furious.
But Atlético had already prepared for that.
Shane kept using those dangerous-looking passing sequences in the back.
Like a Spanish matador,
he teased the angry bull charging in at the red cape,
wearing it down and waiting for the one clean thrust into its heart.
It was an extremely dangerous thing to do.
Those horns were no joke.
But Shane was bold and skilled.
He kept dancing on the edge of the horns.
In the 67th minute,
he finally delivered the fatal blow...
A long pass split the field.
"Shane's long ball... Griezmann receives it!"
Griezmann controlled it with his chest, then pushed it on with the inside of his foot!
The ball was threaded diagonally into the box.
Costa burst in, met it in stride, and blasted it!
The ball flew into Real Madrid's net for the fourth time.
4-1!
That goal shattered Madrid's spirit.
They could still hold on when they were down by two,
but now...
they were three behind.
Mourinho stood on the sideline, looking hollow.
"Atlético Madrid have won the derby again..."
Mario announced the result.
Even though there was still a long time left in the match,
both sides began making substitutions.
Simeone's side used theirs to strengthen the defense.
By then,
he had completely abandoned the idea of attacking first and switched fully to defending and countering.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, sent on more attacking players.
Of course, that weakened their defense in midfield and at the back.
But Atlético had also taken off their forwards,
so the match became a messy battle in the center of the pitch.
That made the Madrid fans anxious.
The game kept being broken up, stopped, and fragmented.
Collisions, fouls, clashes.
Yellow cards.
Even red cards—
in the 83rd minute, Gabi picked up a second yellow and was sent off.
Three minutes later, Pepe flattened Raúl García and ignited a brawl.
Pepe was sent off directly.
Tactically, the match had become poor.
But the intensity on the field became outrageous.
That was a derby.
The fierce contest lasted until the referee finally blew for full time.
After the match,
Atlético's players celebrated wildly at the Calderón.
Facing the reporters' microphones,
Shane said this:
"Before the season started, I said our goal was the championship. We've now beaten Real Madrid twice. Next, we want to beat Barça twice as well. Then we can say we're the kings of La Liga!"
"Of course, every match matters, but head-to-head wins matter even more. Our goal now is to beat Barcelona at this stadium in Matchday 36!"
"And then win the La Liga title!"
By this point,
Shane did not need to be modest.
He did not want to be modest either.
Double over Real Madrid.
Then double over Barça.
That would make the value of this season's La Liga title rise sharply.
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