3️⃣ things we learned as Real Madrid down Atalanta to win UEFA Super Cup | OneFootball

The traditional curtain raiser for the European football season is now behind us, and Real Madrid showed why they are the kings of the continent with a 2-0 victory over Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup.

Here is what we made of events in Warsaw.

Mbappé grabs the first of many for Madrid

It just had to happen, didn’t it?

After all the talk in the build-up about his long-awaited debut for Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé took just 68 minutes to get off the mark for his new club.

The French superstar struggled to get going in the first half, as did most of his teammates, which was not surprising given it was a tournament summer and they’ve only just returned to training in the last week.

There was a nutmeg in the first half that showed that the 25-year-old was here to show out, and his big moment would come after 68 minutes when, after great work from Jude Bellingham, he fired home from inside the box.

His goal means he has followed fellow Galácticos, namely both Ronaldos, in scoring on his first outing for Los Blancos.

After the game, Mbappé set a target of 50 goals for the season, which shows his supreme confidence in meeting the challenge, pressure and demands of playing for the world’s biggest club.

This was the perfect start.

Bellingham, Courtois and co. show why Real are the team to beat

While he will take all of the headlines, Mbappé wasn’t even one of the best players for Real tonight, which is a slightly scary prospect.

Before the game, their lineup looked like something built on FIFA or Football Manager, and so it proved, particularly in the second half.

The game changed on an early contender for save of the season from Thibaut Courtois, who did brilliantly to prevent Mario Pašalić from giving Atalanta the lead.

It was then the turn of the attackers to do their thing. Vini Jr. skipped down the left before squaring the ball to Fede Valverde, who had the simple task of tapping into an empty net.

Mbappé’s goal saw all of the new “Fab Four” involved, as Vini picked up the ball off compatriot Rodrygo before overhitting a pass to Bellingham inside the box. The Englishman took his time and picked out the Frenchman to fire home.

While he struggled at EURO 2024 at times, and regularly appeared to be in a petulant mood, Bellingham showed his absolute best qualities in the second half here, marauding through midfield almost at will.

If that didn’t make it abundantly clear that the football version of the Avengers are the team to beat right now, they brought Arda Güler and Luka Modrić off the bench, while Eduardo Camavinga and Endrick didn’t even get on.

And, of course, they have the perfect manager in Carlo Ancelotti to mesh all of this talent perfectly together.

Atalanta will be a threat in the Champions League

The last 35 minutes of the game might have been a bit of a lesson from the LaLiga giants, but Atalanta have nothing to be ashamed of.

Albeit there was a pre-season type feel to the first half, they looked the part, and caused their illustrious rivals problems on occasion, and almost took the lead shortly after the break.

This came amid a summer of discontent in Bergamo, with star midfielder Teun Koopmeiners going on strike in an attempt to force through a move to Juventus, and Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca both suffering serious knee injuries.

Gian Piero Gasperini has long proven himself to be one of European football’s top tacticians, and a master at playing the underdog role, as was shown in their stunning Europa League success last season, and don’t expect anything different this time around.

The new Champions League Swiss model will change up the dynamic of the competition, but the presence of Atalanta will ensure there is still some much-needed colour and potential for “shock” results.