Atalanta 2-3 Real Madrid: Match review | OneFootball

Real Madrid escape an Atalanta scare with a nervy 2-3 victory in Bergamo, which takes them to 18th in the Champions League table.

Dani Ceballos and Brahim Díaz were handed a start for this all important game, along with a not-so-fit Vinícius Júnior.

Los Blancos, for the first time in a lengthy period, got off to a strong start after a well-timed pass from Brahim to Kylian Mbappe led the Frenchman to take a sublime touch and smash the ball into the bottom left corner.

Madrid took the lead in this all important game and did not let Atalanta play the brand of football they are use to playing this season.

Dani Ceballos and Brahim covered for Lucas Vazquez and did decently by preventing any damage.

Just when Mbappe was looking good, he went down, not with an injury, but rather a discomfort, and was subbed off in favour of Rodrygo in the 36th minute.

The centre-back pairing in particular, had not put a foot wrong, with Tchouameni and Rüdiger being at their ultimate best up to that point in the game.

But that changed, after a minor touch from Tchouameni led to Sead Kolasinac earning a penalty for the Italians. Charles De Ketelaere made no mistake and scored a penalty, which would have been impossible to save for arguably any goalkeeper in the world.

What was turning out to be a convincing effort in the first half, ended with frustration with the score standing at 1-1.

Atalanta looked a different side when they began the second half, as Gasperini’s side kept most of the ball and created many chances too.

But one mistake is all it took for Vinicius to be at the right place at the right time, and the Brazilian gave Los Blancos the lead.

Just a couple of minutes later, Jude Bellingham’s season – and the scoreline – got even better with the English starlet scoring the third goal of the night and his 6th goal in the last 7 matches.

Everything seemed to be going Madrid’s way but Atalanta were not giving up so easily, with the home crowd being their 12th man.

Ademola Lookman who had wrecked havoc on the left wing at this point, finally slotted one home from a difficult angle to give the Italians some sort of hope.

What transpired afterwards was all nerves but Carlo Ancelotti’s side held theirs and ended the game with a victory but not before nearly having their heart in their throat after Mario Retegui missed a shocking chance in an empty net.

The Italian manager believed that Real Madrid played their best football tonight and that could be argued, but the second half was where they looked a bit all over the place.

However, it was the win that mattered and now Ancelotti believes that his side can make the top 8, but will have to win their remaining two games first.

Even he could not tell what was going on with all the injuries, as Vini, Rodrygo and even Jude looked not fully fit and Mbappe ultimately had to be subbed off.

But for now, Real Madrid prevailed and although the chances to finish in the top 8 is slim, the Merengues will do all in their power to win the matches against Salzburg and Brest and then hope for the best.