UCL Ro16: Real Madrid vs Atalanta

Atalanta may have lost Papu Gomez but they look just as good as ever and have a complete squad. Meanwhile we are dealing with key injuries with Benzema and Ramos.

Our best bet should be to secure a draw to take back home, and hopefully everyone will be fit for the return leg

They seem to have hit top form just before the tie. Won their last three games, knocking out Napoli from Coppa Italia in the process. They have also managed to pull off some decent results against some of Serie A top teams.

So all in all, they definitely seem to be a side that can cause an upset. But I really don't care at this point. I watched Madrid get knocked out in the round of 16 for the past couple years. They can't afford to leave the competition again for the third straight year at such an early stage.

They have to go through.

Official:

Thibu
Vasquez Varane Nacho Mendy
Modric Casemiro Kroos
Isco
Asension Vini

Zidiamond is back with no strikers. Endless crosses to Asesnsio and Vini.... Zizou

I hope Casemiro plays in the reverse Benzema position tonight.

Isco will be killing it today. I feel it in my bones

We will never come out of this game without conceding so we have to score from our chances

Yeah he's killing most of our attacks

Imagine getting hyped for Isco in 2021

How much money can we get for Isco and Vinicious? Genuinely curious

I wonder for how long Florentino is going to keep sticking to this crappy transfer policy before he realizes that the chances of him getting a CR7 out of a Vinicius or a Rodrygo or a Asensio or whatever are very very very slim, and that he needs to abandon this approach ASAP.

Well that was a terrible game. Almost like we were going for the draw and were surprised by the win

Mendy scoring with his right Zidane vodoo working I see

With the amount of injuries a 1-0 is fine.

However that shouldn't excuse the big elephants in the room and thats Asensio and Vinicius. I have to agree with DoC, while it was very ambitious of Flo and something that i agreeed on, it hasnt worked and it likely wont. Ill hold off on Rodrygo since he was doing good before his injury, but Asensio and Vini are not going to be the players we believed they would have been. At this point we should just sell while their market value is still high. I didn't believe that they would become Ronaldo, Messi or Neymar but at the very least be consistent and tally up goals and assists, and its clear that they aren't even against the smallest of teams

Nacho btw has been excellent these last few games

Now we just need to capitalise on the inevitable Atleti loss next weekend

The Demon of Carthage wrote:I wonder for how long Florentino is going to keep sticking to this crappy transfer policy before he realizes that the chances of him getting a CR7 out of a Vinicius or a Rodrygo or a Asensio or whatever are very very very slim, and that he needs to abandon this approach ASAP.

You’re sounding like a broken record! I’m sure Flo heard you the first time. You’ll be better off waiting until June to see if he pays attention to you or not!

Atalanta man marked Modric off the pitch. Stifling the creativity

They had a good plan before the sending off

They'll be going all out in the return leg

the game really felt like a serie a game, at least we have an away win,. i don't know if i mentioned this, but i remember the year we won the league and ucl double, there was a debate on here about winning with style vs just winning. i was on the 'just winning' side- but i think i'm getting swayed, if not swayed already towards the other side of the argument. this just isn't it, and maybe the lack of fans has an effect, but i'm not lying when i say i forced myself to finish that game

There was a joy in our chaotic mess that was the double winning season. We had matches were it really was cross and Inshallah our way to a win and somewhere in between, it was genuinely bloody good football.

Nowadays, this is horse shit and it's fucking depressing. Even the crossing is nonsense now because we cross to the opposing defenders to head out...or to Vasquez.

Cyborg wrote:Atalanta man marked Modric off the pitch. Stifling the creativity

They had a good plan before the sending off

They'll be going all out in the return leg

Poor Modric. Not only is he at higher risk of becoming life-threateningly ill from Covid-19, but the young'uns are after him too.

halamadrid2 wrote:Isco will be killing it today. I feel it in my bones

We will never come out of this game without conceding so we have to score from our chances

I understand Hala you want to believe but Isco is done. Like done done. Shame really but I shall follow him wherever his career goes as it certainly isn't with Madrid.

lol isco is done? isco never started (no pun intended), i got heat for comparing him to guti a while back, but there careers here at madrid seem strikingly similar. he did play well today, but its best for him to move on. unlike guti, i think he can do better for himself elsewhere

not that it matters, but in my opinion guti > isco
i just dont see any other team besides madrid that would have put up with guti's nonsense

I don't think those two are very comparable. For me, Guti will always be the definition of wasted talent. He had so much talent, but hardly ever put in the effort, and I never got the impression that he had the ambition to be anything more than what he was, which was an occasional super sub.

Isco may have had his periods where he looked jaded and unproductive, but comparatively speaking, his work rate has been mostly average, sometimes even quite high. I distinctly remember his performance against Liverpool as a makeshift DM. That was probably my favorite performance by him to date. He was all over the place. Isco is much more of a flair player and a ball hogger. Guti was never that.

I'm sure there are many people who wanted Isco to be a modern version of Guti. Perhaps even one who actually aspired to be something greater, but I never saw him that way. He's certainly had his moments for us, but he's consistently failed to nail down a starting spot, and I'm actually quite surprised that he's stuck around for so long. If I'm brutally honest, he was never quite talented enough for the type of player that he is.

agree with all your points. my comparison was to point out that whilst some may envision a bigger role for him here or consider him a star, he is basically a utility man here, nothing more. wasn't about their playing style or skill levels

Kudos to Nacho in this game as well.

He played well albeit against zero attackers

He did well and he has been doibg well as Ramos' sub.

Wonderful game by our players. Particularly our midfielders. Very well done

Kroos and Modric. So good. My goodness.

I dont know if its tired legs, but we need this same energy from them every game. This is crunch time

We should go back to the 442. We need Valverde's dynamism yet we can't bench any of MKC when they're all in this form

Easy decision for me when our attack is as it is. But on the other hand Nacho deserves to start and Zidane will never bench Varane unfortunately who is terrible. So we'll probably see a 352 from now on at least until Dani gets back