Real Madrid 2-0 Atalanta: UEFA Super Cup goes to Mbappe after plucky Dea performance
Atalanta held out for almost an hour and forced a stunning Thibaut Courtois save, but eventually capitulated to Kylian Mbappé and Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.
La Dea won their first ever piece of European silverware with the Europa League thanks to an Ademola Lookman hat-trick, but were decimated going to the National Stadium in Warsaw. Injuries ruled out Gianluca Scamacca, Nicolò Zaniolo, Giorgio Scalvini and Rafael Toloi, with Teun Koopmeiners dropped for trying to force through a Juventus transfer. Ancelotti threw Mbappé straight in for his debut, but Eduardo Camavinga hurt his knee in last night’s warm-up.
Isak Hien made a crucial block on the Mbappé shot when Federico Valverde rolled across from the right, but Atalanta hit the crossbar when Marten de Roon’s cross was deflected onto the woodwork by Eder Militao.
Antonio Rudiger had to make a crucial tackle to stop Ademola Lookman going clear and Jude Bellingham was probably offside anyway when trying to chest down a Vinicius dinked ball over the top, though Juan Musso was alert to smother.
Rodrygo also clipped the crossbar in first half stoppages, found by a smart slide-rule Vinicius pass and leaning back to fire onto the woodwork as Musso rushed out.
Atalanta had a huge chance straight after the restart, Mario Pasalic’s looping header from a De Roon cross fingertipped out of the far top corner by Thibaut Courtois.
However, Real Madrid opened the scoring when Musso’s poor clearance under pressure was intercepted, Vinicius pulled back from the by-line and found Valverde totally unmarked to tap in from a couple of yards.
Carlo Ancelotti’s men almost got two more in the next few minutes, but Musso was decisive first one-on-one with Vinicius, then to claw a deflected Bellingham effort off the line on the resulting corner.
Musso was also alert to save Bellingham’s angled drive at the near post, but could do nothing when Bellingham laid it off for Mbappé to fire in first time from 12 yards. The move had been started when Rodrygo robbed the otherwise impressive Hien in midfield.
Ben Godfrey prodded towards goal, blocked off by Eder Militao in the six-yard box, and another odd deflection almost sent the Vinicius pull-back into the net.