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NorthAfter a tedious game of patience, Toni Kroos has a good chance of reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League with Real Madrid. At Atalanta Bergamo, Los Blancos won 1-0 (0-0) in the first leg of the round of 16 after a long majority. Against the passionate Italian defenders, Madrid found the decisive holes late: Ferland Mendy (86th) scored just before the end, Real now have the trump cards in hand before the return leg on March 16 in Spain.
At 17 minutes, German referee Tobias Stieler had shown Bergamos Remo Freuler the red card, a controversial decision. From the referee’s point of view, the defender had prevented a clear scoring opportunity, the strong protests from the hosts did not change Stieler. Video assistant Bastian Dankert did not intervene.
For the most part, Madrid, who had failed in the last sixteen in the last two years, had significantly more possession and looked for gaps in Bergamo’s defense, initially to no avail. Atalanta also forced ten turnovers and then played determinedly to the top. National player Robin Gosens repeatedly launched attacks on his left side.
Kroos played his 308th competitive game with Madrid on Wednesday night, tying at the level of Ulli Stielike, who wore the royal jersey from 1977 to 1985. Already on Monday in the league game against Real Sociedad San Sebastián, Kroos can climb to the German record in the Real.
As usual, the 2014 world champion convinced as a trusted ball distributor. Still, Madrid struggled to create scoring opportunities. This was probably also due to major personal problems: Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Eden Hazard and Karim Benzema were injured.
The first great possibility arose by chance. A deflected shot by Croatia’s World Cup runner-up Luka Modric (48th) passed just ahead. Shortly after, Junior Vinicius (53º) finished the ball over the crossbar from a few meters.
However, anyone expecting some kind of power play from the Royal was disappointed. He was left with this short phase of pressure, the team of coach Zinedine Zidane continued without rhythm and without ideas to get Bergamo in trouble. Instead, Atalanta managed to break free from the grip. Only Mendy’s distant shot broke Madrid’s spell.
