Real Madrid celebrate in Warsaw. Carlo Ancelotti’s side have lifted the UEFA Super Cup with a 2-0 win over Atalanta Bergamo. Today, Kylian Mbappe, who joined Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, took to the pitch for the first time as a Royal player. The French forward could not have dreamed of a better debut – he sealed his side’s victory in the 68th minute.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said before the game that the fight against Real for the European trophy would be a big deal for the whole of Bergamo – and that awareness probably gripped his players in the opening minutes of the match. The Italian team allowed themselves to be pushed back into their own area and saved themselves from dangerous attacks from their rivals by committing fouls.. Less than 10 minutes had passed when Swiss referee Sandro Schaerer showed first yellow card – Brazilian midfielder Ederson saw her.
However, the Royals’ pressure was ineffective and after the first quarter of an hour the Spanish team did what they did, among others, against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final: they focused on defending their own goal and giving the ball to their opponents. They only posed a threat after counterattacks and set pieces, which they usually won as a result of these counterattacks.
The closest Atalanta came to a goal in the first half was when Real Madrid almost put the ball in the net alone. Dutchman Marten de Roon crossed from the right and hit Brazilian defender Eder Militão, and Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois could only watch as the ball bounced off the post and back into the field.
In the first half’s injury time, the Brazilian, unaccompanied, received a pass from his compatriot Vinicius Junior about 10 meters from the goal and had only Argentine goalkeeper Juan Musso in front of him, but he kicked it too high – the ball bounced off the post and went out of play.
Kylian Mbappe, who is making his debut for the Royals and has been playing since the first minute of the game, showed several skilful moves in this part of the game, confirming his high technical ability, but Real did not benefit from this. As Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti said: The French star will need some time to get used to his new club’s style of play..
The “battle” in the stands was definitely won by Atalanta fans. There was almost constant chanting and shouting coming from their sector, while on the other side of the arena the chanting was quite slow. Vinicius Junior drew attention to this at the start of the first half and, with a dynamic gesture, asked the Real fans to support more spontaneously.
It was only a few dozen seconds after Courtois saved his team from going a goal down. In the 47th minute, Croatian Mario Pasalic headed the ball from about ten meters away, but Real’s Belgian goalkeeper made a spectacular save from a corner kick. You won’t see much better defenses this season – he commented in a live report on the European Football Union (UEFA) website.
At 59 minutes it was “The Royals” carried out the first effective action: Jude Bellingham passed to Vinicius Junior, who entered the area on the left and passed to Federico Valverde, and the Uruguayan simply pushed the ball into the empty net.
