The Real Madrid He put the knockout round of the Champions League on track, winning Atalanta. Of course, the white team suffered a great deal to beat an Italian team that was put in the game against when they were left with 10 from minute 17 in a controversial expulsion to Freuler and what he saw as his scorer, Zapata, he was injured within half an hour. Real Madrid had everything in their favor, but the 0-1 of Mendy It did not arrive until the 86th minute to relieve a merengue team that played a slow and predictable game that almost cost them to return to Madrid with a 0-0 that favored Atalanta.
Zidane decided to go without a scorer against Atalanta to seek control of the ball with Isco. A game idea from the French coach that came out perfectly but not so much because of the merits of his players, if not because of Freuler's expulsion in the 17th minute of the game. A direct red because the referee understood that he knocked down Mendy aborting a clear chance of scoring. That is what the referee saw and pointed out to the protests of the entire Atalanta for a somewhat dubious decision that caused the game to enter a new chapter.
With one less, Atalanta locked themselves in their area while Real Madrid played very comfortable, but without creating danger and that even more the encounter with Zapata's injury half an hour into the game. The Italians, with one less and without their goal man, have already put a wall around their goal without embarrassment that Real Madrid was unable to overcome. Touch, touch and touch and little more of the whites that did not give the ball enough speed to dislodge the Atalanta defense.
Real Madrid understood that only by giving it that speed could it find its way to the goal. He did it in the last minutes of the first half in which the whites did generate chances, some very clear, such as one of Casemiro, but unchecked. This is how it came to rest. Without goals and with the feeling that Real Madrid was wasting a great opportunity to leave the tie in Italy decided.
The panorama did not change in a second half in which the white dominance continued to be overwhelming before an Atalanta locked behind waiting for a counter with which to reach the goal of Courtois. Real Madrid continued the same, with a lot of horizontal and very slow game that did not worry the Italianss. Zidane, seeing that a golden opportunity was slipping away, he removed Vinicius to enter Mariano. Or what is the same, put a finisher on the field to look for that longed-for goal. The truth is that with Mariano in the field, it is not that Real Madrid was an offensive gale. On the contrary, he slowed down in an alarming way and that relieved an Atalanta who even dared to cross the border of the midfield.
Zidane played his last cards with the canteranos Arribas and Hugo Duro. But not even for that reason, Real Madrid was able to improve their game to overcome an Atalanta who defended the 0-0 as what it was, a treasure for them seeing how the game was. And when everything seemed headed for that 0-0, the one that nobody expected appeared: Mendy. The full-back hooked a right-footed shot from the front to score 0-1 in the 86th minute.
A goal that relieved Real Madrid, who played a very discreet game in Bergamo, but which helped them win a controversial victory due to the expulsion of Freuler in the 17th minute, but that left the whites closer to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Atalanta, 0
Gollini; Toloi, Romero, Djmstri, Mahele (Palomino, m. 86), De Roon, Freuler, Gosens, Pessina, Zapata (Pasalic, m.30), Muriel (Ilicic, m.56 (Malinovski, m. 86))
Real Madrid, 1
Courtois; Lucas Vázquez, Varane, Nacho, Mendy; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Isco (Hugo Duro, d. 76); Marco Asensio (Arribas, m. 76) and Vinicius (Mariano, m. 57).
Goal: 0-1, Mendy (m. 86)
Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany). Freuler sent off with a direct red (m. 17). Yellow to Casemiro (m. 23), Mendy (m. 55), Gosens (m. 71)
Stadium: Stadio di Bergamo. No public due to coronavirus