Key events
Jude Bellingham talks to TNT Sports. “Really fun … we have a new look team … it seemed to just click tonight … sometimes it takes time … the first half we were still adjusting … the second it all came together and we were brilliant … really nice … it’s going to be a long year if we want to win everything, which is what we want to do … but you have to enjoy nights like tonight … come Sunday [at Mallorca in La Liga] it’s straight back to work … I don’t know if I’ll always score goals or make goals, but hopefully I’ll always be involved in helping the team win, and that’s the most important thing for me … Mbappé is one of those players … a great team-mate … he works like a dog for the team … credit to him, he deserves it … not every game is going to be like this, we’ll have to suffer at times.”
Atalanta’s players mooch over to their fans and a mutual love-in takes place. Some disappointment, sure, but nothing that will leave scar tissue. And they’ll always have Dublin. Real Madrid meanwhile celebrate, which is what they do. All smiles. Winning never gets old.
The reprised Super Cup roll of honour. Because these things are important.
6: Real Madrid
5: AC Milan, Barcelona
4: Liverpool
3: Atlético Madrid
2: Anderlecht, Ajax, Juventus, Valencia, Bayern Munich, Chelsea
1: Dynamo Kyiv, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Aberdeen, Steaua Bucureşti, Porto, Mechelen, Manchester United, Parma, Lazio, Galatasaray, Sevilla, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Manchester City
Carlo Ancelotti and Gian Piero Gasperini warmly embrace. The Atalanta man smiles as he offers his congratulations, no doubt aware that his team were second best tonight. Having said that, things could have panned out differently had Thibaut Courtois not spectacularly clawed out Mario Pašalić’s early second-half header, but once Vinícius Júnior did his thing down the left to tee up Federico Valverde, the outcome was inevitable. Kylian Mbappé clinically dispatched a second, having been found clear in an otherwise crowded box by the unflappable Jude Bellingham, and that was pretty much that. The boys from the Bernabeu will already be dreaming of lifting number 16 in Munich next May.
FULL TIME: Real Madrid 2-0 Atalanta
Real deservedly win the 2024 Super Cup! It’s their sixth: an all-time record. “I’m looking forward to the new Champions League format,” writes Simon McMahon. “It should be fun finding out who Real Madrid will beat in this season’s final.”
90 min: Marco Palestra and Alberto Manzoni come on for Hien and Pašalić. They’ll both get two minutes.
89 min: Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior and Carvajal make way for Arda Güler, Lucas Vázquez and Dani Ceballos.
87 min: Atalanta haven’t given this up, with Lookman continuing to probe. He slips in Ruggeri down the left. A looping cross finds Godfrey at the far stick. Godfrey shins wide right from close range. Somewhere in the multiverse, a player who never scored for Everton in 93 games has notched a hat-trick tonight.
85 min: Lookman has been Atalanta’s liveliest threat on the big European stage, again, and his busy play down the left nearly leads to a goal. He dribbles his way down the touchline before flicking infield for Retegui, who should get a shot away from ten yards but doesn’t.
83 min: Mbappé, his work done, makes way for Brahim Díaz.
82 min: Vinicius Junior spins Djimsiti once again down the left. He reaches the byline and crosses. The ball clips the unfortunate Djimsiti and loops over Musso, landing on the line before spinning backwards and away from goal. Shane Warne would have been proud of the action on that one.
81 min: Retegui clatters Mendy, who rolls around a bit as the clock ticks down.
79 min: Lookman leaves one late on Carvajal’s ankle. Carvajal springs up and fancies a square go. Players get in the way to calm things down. We play on, but Lookman is lucky both referee and VAR are in a relaxed mood. It was a saucy challenge, and players have walked for much less.
77 min: Rodrygo makes way for Luka Modrić, who comes on to the sort of warm and wild reception he deserves.
76 min: Ruggeri crosses from the left. Godfrey, once again making a nuisance of himself in the Real box, battles at the back stick but can’t force a loose ball home.
74 min: Bakker crosses low from the Atalanta left. Godfrey, of all people, slides in and nearly bundles home. Courtois blocks. Real counter, with Rodrygo forcing Musso into action from distance. “This may be a Uefa gig,” observes Peter Oh, “but that first goal – Brazil’s Vini Junior to Uruguay’s Federico Valverde – was made in Conmebol.”
72 min: The move that led to the second goal began with Rodrygo stripping the otherwise impressive Hien of possession and sending Vinicius Junior on his way before Bellingham took over. So all four members of Real’s new attack were involved in that. Good luck to everyone else in Europe this season!
71 min: The corner’s hit long from the right. Bellingham twists and turns on the left-hand corner of the box but can’t quite make enough room for a shot.
70 min: Real win another corner. Before it can be taken, Mitchel Bakker comes on for Kolašinac.
GOAL! Real Madrid 2-0 Atalanta (Mbappé 68)
This is one hell of a way to get off the mark for your new club. Bellingham jinks around to the left of the six-yard box, and waits, and waits, and waits for something to happen. Space suddenly opens up. He cuts the ball back for Mbappé, who from ten yards dispatches a clinical sidefoot into the top right. Such a calm assist, and a glorious finish!
67 min: Lookman barges his way past Militao down the left but there’s nobody to cross to. Real clear but Atalanta come again through Lookman, who lays off to Ruggeri. A cross from the left is flicked wide of goal by De Roon.
66 min: Bellingham spins into space down the left, enters the box, and shoots low and hard from a tight angle. Musso, who is resisting Real on his own right now, makes another stunning stop.
64 min: Djimsiti is booked for skittling Bellingham out on the left. Atalanta are reeling all right.
63 min: Atalanta are reeling, clinging on, and they make a double change. Ben Godfrey and Mateo Retegui come on for their debuts, Zappacosta and De Katelaere making way.
62 min: … and from the corner, Bellingham shoots through a crowded box. The ball balloons up and looks like dropping into the top-left corner, but with Militão straining to bundle it over the line, Musso somehow gets back to claw it out and away. The whistle goes for a foul on the keeper. What an astonishing save!
61 min: … and it should be two in short order, as Vinicius Junior is sent clear down the middle. He’s only got the keeper to beat, but the ball takes a bobble, and his eventual shot is tipped over by Musso.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Atalanta (Valverde 59)
Here’s the opening goal, and it couldn’t be easier for Valverde, who taps home into an empty net from a couple of yards. All the hard work is done by Vinicius Junior, who teases Djimsiti down the left, then suddenly bursts past his man to reach the touchline and tee up his mate. What an assist!
58 min: It’s beginning to feel like a goal could be coming, at long last. But for who? Mbappé drives down the right and enters the back, but again Hien refuses to budge, blocking calmly.
57 min: Rudiger attempts to one-two his way through the middle, but upon receiving the return ball from Bellingham, is unceremoniously stopped in his tracks by Hien. Atalanta counter, Lookman again showcasing his skills out on the left flank, but he’s unable to find a team-mate in the middle.
56 min: Valverde, heading down the right at pace, backheels for Bellingham, who aims a curler towards the top-left corner from the edge of the box. High and wide. Shame, that would have been a peach.
54 min: Lookman elegantly spins away from Carvajal on the left flank, then gets a tad carried away with himself by attempting to nutmeg Militão. The Real defender isn’t having any of it, standing his ground then clearing.
53 min: A bit of space and time for Carvajal out on the right. His low shot-cum-cross is deflected and nearly squeaks into the bottom right. Just a corner … and one that leads to nothing.
52 min: … so having said that, the game suddenly turns scrappy again. Of course it does.
50 min: Mbappé can’t quite sort his feet for a shot. Then Vinícius Júnior dribbles down the left to win a corner. Musso plucks the set piece out of the sky. This second half is so much better than the first already.
48 min: Real don’t clear the corner properly, and the ball drops to Ruggeri, who from the edge of the box slashes a wild drive wide left. The flag pops up for an offside in the box.
47 min: Atalanta respond by nearly scoring themselves. De Roon curls a cross in from the right. Pašalić, on the left-hand edge of the six-yard box, rises highest to aim a header back across goal and towards the top-right corner. Courtois extends fully to tip around the post for a corner.
46 min: Mbappe immediately goes on a speed ramble down the left, turning Djimsiti this way and that, before entering the box and lashing a shot over the bar.
Real get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time entertainment. Mbappé v Yamal v Álvarez? Yes please!
HALF TIME: Real Madrid 0-0 Atalanta
Both teams have hit the crossbar, though that makes the first half sound much better than it was.
45 min +1: Vinícius Júnior, to the right of the D, strokes a clever diagonal pass with the outside of his boot to Rodrygo, just inside the box on the left. Rodrygo leans back and pings the ball off the top of the bar. As close as Real have come.
45 min: There will be two additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Lookman glides down the left and switches play for Zappacosta, who crosses. Real only half clear, and Lookman, now on the edge of the D, brings it down to shoot. Deflection. Corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but that was a decent, flowing move. Lookman likes these big European showpieces all right.
42 min: Scrub that friendly bit: Vinícius Júnior is booked for standing on De Roon’s foot. A late challenge that earns the striker a booking. He can have no complaints, but makes some anyway.
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