Who said defending can’t be a joy to watch?
It isn’t too often that a tackle goes viral, and we don’t mean that time when [deleted by SportsJOE legal team] sexted [deleted by SportsJOE legal team]. The last one we can recall was Javier Mascherano’s superb game saving tackle on Arjen Robben at the World Cup, a tackle that was so good, the Argentinian tore his anus while making it.
As far as we know, Raphael Varane hasn’t suffered anything nearly as traumatic after this great tackle in last night’s Madrid derby. Atletico may have won 2-0, and all the attention was on the return of Fernando Torres to the Calderon, but this superb piece of defending by the French international was the highlight.
With speedster Antoine Griezmann bearing down on the Real goal, Varane dispossesed his fellow countryman with a beaut of a sliding tackle. Clean, powerful and effective, it was just perfect.
