Real Madrid – Atalanta

Atalanta don’t look like outsiders in the Super Cup

On Wednesday, 14 August, Real Madrid will play against Atalanta in the European Super Cup. The first big match of the European season. Real are listed as clear favorites in the line, and the odds for the rivalry have jumped to 6.00. Obviously, the main event of the summer for Real is the transfer of Kylian Mbappe. Madrid have limited themselves to one high-profile reinforcement. At the same time, the composition of the best team in Europe clearly has weaknesses. For example, David Alaba is still injured, and veteran Nacho has left the club. Thus, Carlo Ancelotti was left with two centre-backs Antonio Rüdiger and Eder Militao. The Brazilian has also only just recovered from a serious injury. A big help is the full return of Thibaut Courtois. The club will quietly start the season with the main goalkeeper. Real had a tour in the United States. The team played with mixed success, but the squad was also without Kylian Mbappe. "Creamy" lost to Milan and Barcelona, and in the final game achieved victory over Chelsea. Of the global conclusions, only the thought of low performance is suggested. None of the matches saw more than three goals scored. This is by no means typical for exhibition matches. Atalanta did not go on tour and alerted their fans with the results. Gian Piero Gasperini's wards lost big to Parma and St Pauli, and also failed to beat AZ. There is an important fact here regarding workloads. On the eve of the season with the Champions League, Gasperini must have tortured the players at the training camp, so there was simply no energy for friendly matches. In official matches Atalanta can be a completely different club. Among the significant losses is the departure of centre-back Caleb Okoli. Also in the near future the club may leave the key player of the central zone Ten Koopmeiners. It is possible that the Dutchman will even miss a European Cup match. Atalanta strengthened quite well. In place of Okolie they took the experienced Ben Godfrey, in attack they added Italian forward Mateo Retegui, rented the eternal talent Nicolo Zaniolo and finally bought out the main star Charles De Ketelare. Atalanta do not look doomed ahead of this match. It is doubtful that Mbappe and Vinicius will organise a perfect link-up. A difficult start for the star tandem is very possible. Real have been preparing for the season for little time, the leaders are exhausted by the national team tournaments. They also turned out to be unsuccessful for many. It is logical to assume that Atalanta will not lose with a big score. Gasperini is able to build not only bold football. In the Europa League final with Bayer, the coach very competently contained the opponent's potential, not giving the Germans space.