“Our idea is to attack for 90 minutes,” the Atalanta centre-back Cristian Romero had said on the eve of this match. Instead, down to 10 men early, he and his exhausted teammates found themselves trying to defend for almost as long. They almost made it too. But as the finish line drew close, reward for their resistance, they were finally shot down.
From a little outside the area, off a short corner, the left-back Ferland Mendy bent in a brilliant shot that gave
Real Madrid a 1-0 away win that had looked like it might evade them. As it hit the net, there was relief for the first Spanish team to win in this round. For the Italian club, who had just made their last change, trying to hang on to a valuable draw, it was cruel.