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Atalanta hosted Real Madrid for their round of 16, first leg encounter in the Champions League. It was destined to be a tough match for Real Madrid who had to deal with a long lost of injuries before heading into this tie.
The game quickly turned sour for Atalanta when Mendy was sent through on goal only to be hauled down at the edge of the box by Freuler. The referee wasted no time and produced a red card in the 18th minute. He deemed it a red card because he felt Mendy was denied a goalscoring opportunity and that is debatable. No doubt it was a foul but the red card seemed a bit too harsh.
The freekick was taken by Isco but he couldn't get his effort beyond the wall and it was blocked off.
In the 37th minute, Modric found Isco in the box, he tried to get an angle to his shot by turning and he managed to get a shot but it went wide. He knew he should have done better there.
In the 46th minute, just before the half time whistle, Casemiro delivered a lovely ball into the net and Mendy brilliantly got his head to it but the brilliant save by the goalkeeper; Gollini kept it out.
In the 47th minute, Modric found Asensio who later gave a return pass to Modric. He had a lovely side-footed effort in the box that trickled just wide. 10 men Atalanta doing a great job to keep Real Madrid from scoring.
In the 53rd minute, a great chance fell to Vinicius in the box and his attempt to quickly his effort was met with resilience from the defence line and it was blocked off for a corner kick. In the 79th minute, Toni Kroos out of desperation to get his team ahead hit an audacious effort that didn't do much to threaten the goalkeeper in any way.
The moment came in the 86th minute when Kroos' corner kick was played short to Modric. With the expectation for a cross into the box, Modric found Mendy whose brilliant curling effort found the back of the net much to the relief of the players. What a goal that was. That goal was deserving to be the winner. They have their crucial away goal now.
The game ended 0-1 in favour of Real Madrid and kudos to Atalanta who had to play the entirety of the match with 10 men. They tried to hold on but they were unable to and it took that moment of brilliance from Mendy to separate them.
Atalanta as a team are not out of the tie yet and they would be gunning for their own away goal in the second leg. Atalanta felt Casemiro should have been sent off too for a second bookable offence when he dived in the box.
It would be an interesting second leg and hopefully, Real Madrid would have gotten some of their injured players back and Atalanta can also take the game to Madrid. Real Madrid dominated the game on the night and their experience in the Champions League would count for them rather than against them. With this win, it means they have now won against 60 different opponents in the Champions League and only Bayern Munich has matched that tally. It's no coincidence that they won tonight because they have won all of their 5 Champions League games in Italy.
Thank you for your time.
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