Underwhelming Real Madrid earned late win to take first leg advantage vs Atalanta

 

Ferland Mendy wheels away in celebrations after handing Real Madrid a huge away goal ahead of the second leg of their champions league duel against Atalanta. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

When you set a certain record, you can’t blame the rest of the world for expecting too much from you or place you on a standard you have to perform from every season, for Real Madrid, they are lackluster at the moment and they have to fix it.

 

Ferland Mendy grabbed a late winner to earn underwhelming Real Madrid a 1-0 win over 10-man Atalanta in Wednesday's Champions League last-16 first leg.

 

Real's task appeared to have been made much easier after Atalanta's Remo Freuler was sent off in the 17th minute for denying Mendy a goal-scoring opportunity and many would have thought the La Liga giants would go on to destroy the Italian side.

 Against the 10 men, however, Zinedine Zidane's side, who were missing several high-profile players through injury, struggled to break down the hosts, and Real had only one shot on target in the rest of the first half which was well saved.

"It was hard for us, but it's a good result in the end. We didn't play a great game, ten against eleven, but in the end it's an important result, an away goal. It's a good result but we'll have to play and win the second leg," Zidane said after the match.

Atalanta continued to defend doggedly after the interval, but Mendy's superb strike in the 86th minute gave the record 13-times European champions a slender lead to take into the second leg.

Gian Piero Gasperini's Atalanta shocked everyone by getting to the quarterfinals last year in their first season in Europe's premier competition, especially given they played all their home games at the San Siro in Milan while their own stadium was being re-developed.

Now back at their ground, Atalanta's first Champions League knockout match in Bergamo got off to a bad start when the referee showed no hesitation in sending Freuler off for bringing down Mendy when he was through on goal.

Without their top goalscorer Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard out injured, it was hard for ideas to stick and the absence of Rodrygo meant that Vinicius Jr. had to think on his own, however, Real lacked potency up front.

 

Half chances for Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr. were all they could come up with as the game entered the latter stages.

 

"Today it was a bit uncomfortable, we couldn't find the spaces ... The most important thing for us is the result. The plan changed [with the red card]," Zidane said.

It was going to take something special to breach the well-organized home side and full-back Mendy provided it with a 25-meter strike, his first Champions League goal.