Real Madrid outplayed at Atalanta, but Los Blancos’ big stars bail them out in crucial Champions League win

A quick glance at the scoresheet of Tuesday’s game between Atalanta and Real Madrid might lead one to argue that the reigning European champions are officially back. Three of their stars – Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham – got on the scoresheet as they picked up a much-needed 3-2 win in the UEFA Champions League, correcting course on an otherwise less-than-ideal league phase campaign. Real Madrid’s Matchday 6 victory, though, is a bit more complicated than that.

The reigning European champions got off to a quick start with Mbappe’s 10th-minute goal, a symbol of recognition that they needed to perform in order to climb out of 24th place. Their intent was obvious to spot – they already had four shots by the time Mbappe scored, two of which were on target, and 0.86 expected goals. It was an impressive feat considering Atalanta had conceded just one goal in Champions League play before this game, and also felt like a defining moment for Mbappe after an underwhelming start to life at his new club.

The next 15 minutes were a different story, though. Atalanta began to claw their way back into the game, playing comfortably without the ball and matching Real Madrid with five shots each. By halftime, the Italian side were outshooting their Spanish counterparts eight to six, were barely short of Madrid’s 1.4 expected goals with their tally of 1.32, and were essentially even on possession. Most crucially, Real Madrid let them back in by conceding a penalty, which Charles De Ketelaere converted in the second minute of first-half stoppage time.

Within the first 15 minutes of the second half, though, Real Madrid did well to respond to their circumstances. Atalanta were now dominating possession and had 57.5% of the ball since the break and outperformed Madrid 0.84 to 0.35 on expected goals, but it was the visitors who had a 3-1 lead courtesy of goals from Vinicius and Bellingham. Their star players were delivering on their promise, carving out a sizable lead that should have put the game to bed – but it did not.

Ademola Lookman responded with a goal of his own six minutes after Bellingham’s strike, making the score 3-2 with just under a half hour to go. To Atalanta’s credit, Lookman’s goal licked off a furious search for the equalizer, putting Madrid in the unglamorous position of defending with all their might. The visitors faced nine shots from the 60th minute, five of which were on target, that totaled 0.82 expected goals, arguably outplayed by the reigning Europa League champions. Thibaut Courtois’ seven saves made him the unlikely hero of the day for Madrid, especially surprising considering who was on the scoresheet on Tuesday and are arguably the reason they came away with all three points.

Though they escaped Italy with a win on Tuesday, the game itself did little to dispel concerns that Real Madrid are a deeply imperfect side. The margins of victory and defeat are still fairly tight through six games in the Champions League, only boasting a goal differential of plus-one despite being one of the competition’s highest-scoring – and most stacked – sides. The injury crisis they have dealt with all season long could continue after Mbappe came off in the first half, making matters more complicated in an already tricky season.

Yet, their imperfections are not exactly new information. En route to last season’s La Liga and Champions League titles, they were obviously flawed – there were days where they were wasteful in front of goal and others where they bunkered down and absorbed opposition pressure, like in the second leg of their quarterfinal against Manchester City. Their stars allowed them to get away with it, sometimes creating something out of nothing – much like Vinicius did with his goal on Tuesday – to provide the necessary escape.

Just as they were last year, Real Madrid remain an exercise in living and dying by star power. It is far from the most conventional way to run a team and logistically speaking, a pretty difficult thing to attempt. It is a strategy that relies on intangibles, like the ability to build a sense of inevitable victory, a mysterious skill few teams are better at fostering than Real Madrid. Tuesday’s win served as a crucial reminder of that hard-to-pin-down talent, and could perhaps be the necessary turning point for a less-than-idea league phase campaign thus far.

The onus, though, is on Madrid to prove that this unsustainable strategy of success can actually be sustained for another season. The victory in Italy is an example that this approach does actually work sometimes, but this season as a whole demonstrates that it might not be enough. As we approach the halfway point of the 2024-25 campaign, though, the jury’s still out on how viable this plan is. While Madrid remain top contenders to win silverware, one thing is very clear – despite their struggles this season, it is still too early to write them off.