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.
Madrid, the reigning European champions, endured a difficult war in Bergamo to beat Serie A leaders Atalanta 3-2 thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham and get their name defense back on track.
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.
“This victory will bring us a lot, it is a wonderful victory because it is based on quality play and hard work. It gave us a little respite. . . Hopefully we will have more players available (in January). However, as of today we feel calmer, absolutely. “
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.
The Italian striker Retetetu failed the goal of a few in contact with Adela Lookman and saw Ashen face once he realized the opportunity he had wasted.
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.
“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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