That's a 'Real' relief!

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti relieved as their title defence gets new lease of life after tough 3-2 victory over Atalanta; says goal is to win remaining two matches and push for spot in top eight

Carlo Ancelotti hopes that Real Madrid’s win over Atalanta will help his team push for a top eight finish in the Champions League and direct passage for the last 16. Reigning European champions Madrid came through a tough battle in Bergamo to beat Serie A leaders Atalanta 3-2 with goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham and get their title defence back on track.

Madrid three points away

Madrid are now three points from the top eight positions with matches against Salzburg and Brest remaining in their league phase campaign and the rest of this week’s fixtures coming up on Wednesday. “I don’t know if we can get into top eight, but the goal is obvious, we need to win both the matches that we have left,” Ancelotti told reporters.

Carlo Ancelotti

“This win will give us a lot, it’s a great win because it was based on quality play and hard work. It’s given us some breathing room... Let’s hope we have more players available [in January], but we’re more relaxed about it after today, absolutely,” he added. 

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was so proud of his team’s performance he wasn’t even too upset by Mateo Retegui blazing over a golden chance to equalise in added time. Italy forward Retegui somehow missed the target from inches out when making contact with Ademola Lookman’s fizzing low cross and looked ashen faced once he realise the opportunity he had passed up. 

Also Read: 'We are hurt': Ancelotti

Defeat dropped Atalanta, who scored through Lookman and Charles De Ketelaere, down to ninth on 11 points with matches against Sturm Graz and Barcelona completing their league phase. 

‘Atalanta need to improve’

“It happened so fast... a draw would have possibly better reflected the balance of play but maybe, losing like we did will hurt us more and force us to improve,” said Gasperini. “The defeat had nothing to do with luck or anything like that and that means that we still need to tweak a few things to get to their level.”

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