Carlo Ancelotti admits ‘Atalanta made us suffer, it’s like going to the dentist,’ but Real Madrid dug deep to win the UEFA Super Cup with ‘astonishing’ Jude Bellingham.
The Galacticos were the absolute favourites going into the showdown at the National Stadium in Warsaw, but struggled for an hour to break La Dea down and even had to thank goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois for a sensational fingertip save on Mario Pasalic’s looping header.
It proved pivotal, as moments later Federico Valverde opened the scoring with a tap-in, then Kylian Mbappé scored on his debut.
“It was a good game, Atalanta made us really suffer in the first half, they found spaces and won many duels,” Ancelotti told Sky Sport Italia.
“Once the pressure and their physicality in the duels fell away after the break, we started to find spaces upfront and in those situations our attacking players are very effective.”
Despite missing several key players including Teun Koopmeiners, Gianluca Scamacca and Nicolò Zaniolo, Gian Piero Gasperini still took the game to Real Madrid, as Atalanta played man to man throughout.
The Italian then harked back to something Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola once said about facing La Dea.
“It is still true, playing against Atalanta is like going to the dentist! The players were a bit irritable at half-time, as they couldn’t do what they wanted to. I told them they had to be patient, because this is a really, really well-organised team.
“Atalanta played very well and they made us suffer.”
There were doubts over how Ancelotti was going to introduce Mbappé into this system, but the balance overall seemed to work well because they were constantly switching positions.
“They must have mobility upfront. It doesn’t matter to me if they play right, left or central, as long as they occupy the spaces and above all work to help the team get the ball back. That is what they did.”
Bellingham was named Man of the Match by the UEFA panel and Ancelotti fully agreed with the verdict.
“He is a great player, there is no debating it. His second half performance was astonishing, especially as he has only been training for seven days.”
The coach had joked with Valverde over his scoring record, so did he have anything to say about tonight’s tap-in?
“I told him it was surprising he was in front of the goal, as usually with the strikers we’ve got, he tends to be a bit further back.”
