All aboard! Atletico, Real Madrid players travel to derby for LaLiga clash on public buses

Authentic Madrid and Atletico Madrid players experienced to forgo the luxury with which they ordinarily make their prematch arrivals for LaLiga matches on Sunday as they all travelled to the Madrid derby at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on general public buses.

The two squads — as very well as coaching team and stability staff — arrived for 1 of LaLiga’s most significant-profile, fiercely contested fixtures on electric powered buses furnished by the city’s Municipal Transport Organization (EMT) as section of its 75th anniversary celebrations.

The 28-seater buses have been specifically decorated for the event, covered with the colors and logos of the two teams, but have been normally equivalent to people applied by Madrid residents to get close to the Spanish cash every single working day.

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The buses are absolutely electric powered with zero carbon emissions and supply no cost wifi, but usually deficiency the comforts that major players are used to these as reclining seats, drinks fridges and tinted windows.

The Actual Madrid squad experienced a 15-minute excursion from their Valdebebas teaching sophisticated on the outskirts of the Spanish money, travelling 5 miles south to the Wanda Metropolitano.

Madrid mentor Carlo Ancelotti, who very last week grew to become the first manager to earn a title in all of Europe’s major five leagues, obviously enjoyed himself, as he took his position at the entrance and held on to the protection rail as the bus arrived at the stadium.

Atletico’s journey was even shorter, with their bus finishing the 3-mile journey from the team’s hotel in close proximity to Madrid’s Barajas Airport to their household floor in close to 10 minutes, arriving at 7.40 p.m. nearby time ahead of the 9 p.m. kick-off.

Los Rojiblancos forward Antoine Griezmann seemed comfortable boarding his a lot less glamourous prematch trip, maybe because he was continue to equipped to have his cup of mate on with him.

Atleti defender Sime Vrsaljko, meanwhile, could not cover his exhilaration about hopping on by the middle doorways, without the need of even owning to spend the driver.

Compared with most people’s experiences of commuting to work by bus, the two squads were accompanied by a police escort to keep away from any targeted visitors jams, delays or opportunity issues, and ended up adopted by the teams’ regular coaches, which would be utilized to obtain the gamers just after the match.

Actual Madrid’s gamers have been paying a lot of time on buses these days, with an open up-top rated model carrying them and the LaLiga trophy from the Santiago Bernabeu to the Cibeles fountain, in which the club typically celebrate title wins, just after they conquer Espanyol 4- to clinch the league title the preceding weekend.

Atletico have not been ready to celebrate successful any silverware this year, but their 1- acquire around their city rivals on Sunday was a huge stage towards securing a best-four finish that would verify Champions League qualification for next year.