The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Commanders 16-13 in overtime in Week 11 of the current NFL season, in a game that took place for the first time in Spain. The capital of the Iberian country, Madrid, hosted the duel between the two American football teams, with over 78,000 people attending the Bernabeu stadium for this duel that was accompanied by an entertainment show that lived up to the organizers’ expectations.
The Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders faced off in the first-ever NFL game to be held in Spain, with the capital of the country, Madrid, hosting the meeting of these American football teams. At the Bernabeu arena, the Florida team entered the game in 12th place in the AFC, while the team from the capital of the United States was in 14th place in the NFC, with the two clubs’ records so far this season being identical: three wins and seven losses.
Before the duel in the Spanish capital, the direct matches between the two teams, more precisely, the most recent five such confrontations, had ended with a total of four successes for the Miami Dolphins, in contrast to a single triumph for the Washington Commanders. The only time in this entire time frame when the Washington D.C. club managed to “collect” all the points from a duel against the Florida team five years ago, when the difference was made by one point.
The last victory scored by the students trained on the sidelines by Mike McDaniel in the company of the team coached by Dan Quinn had been outlined in the previous season, when the final score of the confrontation played at “Hard Rock Stadium” was 13-6. The sale of the first installment of tickets for this match brought, simultaneously, on the official platform, over 700,000 users, the final assistance recorded during the meeting being over 78,000 people.
The United States national anthem was performed by vocalist Karina Pasian, and before the start of the match, the Spanish women’s flag football team was applauded on the open stage in recognition of winning the bronze medal at this year’s European Championship. The regular season match of American football attracted the attention of some celebrities from international football, as personalities such as Zinedine Zidane, Florentino Perez, Antonio Rudiger and Antoine Griezmann made an appearance at the “Bernabeu”.
The first half of the game was one in which the deep throws were not of the best quality, and the score was 6-6 at the end of the first two quarters. The break of the match between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders was the occasion of an artistic spectacle of significant economic proportions, as the artist Daddy Yankee and DJ Bizarrap each performed a song from their repertoire in front of the audience at the Madrid arena. Immediately after the game resumed, a historic moment was reached when Deebo Samuel scored the first NFL touchdown on Spanish soil and managed to put his team ahead on the scoreboard.
For the first time in about a month, the team from the capital of the United States of America led during a confrontation, but the offensive gaps of the “guest” team were visible, so the Miami Dolphins tied the situation overall. Later, overtime was the one that decided the winner of this game, and although the Washington Commanders started “on the road” with the first possession, the players led by Dan Quinn on the sidelines gave up possession to their opponents, and the Florida club managed to “strike” and prevail with a final score of 16-13, before the classic break during the season.