Key events
Half-time entertainment. Mbappé v Yamal v Álvarez? Yes please!
HALF TIME: Real Madrid 0-0 Atalanta
Both teams have hit the crossbar, though that makes the first half sound much better than it was.
45 min +1: Vinícius Júnior, to the right of the D, strokes a clever diagonal pass with the outside of his boot to Rodrygo, just inside the box on the left. Rodrygo leans back and pings the ball off the top of the bar. As close as Real have come.
45 min: There will be two additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Lookman glides down the left and switches play for Zappacosta, who crosses. Real only half clear, and Lookman, now on the edge of the D, brings it down to shoot. Deflection. Corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but that was a decent, flowing move. Lookman likes these big European showpieces all right.
42 min: Scrub that friendly bit: Vinícius Júnior is booked for standing on De Roon’s foot. A late challenge that earns the striker a booking. He can have no complaints, but makes some anyway.
41 min: A glorified pre-season friendly, some say. It’s certainly got that feel at the moment.
39 min: Vinícius Júnior attempts to skin Hien down the left but only manages to clank the ball out for a goal kick. Neither keeper has had any serious work to do.
37 min: That yellow card was punishment for Bellingham putting Musso in danger with his lunge, though by extending his leg as the keeper went down, he was courting trouble for himself as well. He’s lucky Musso’s weight didn’t come down on his planted leg, or that could have been grisly.
35 min: Real counter immediately, and Vinícius Júnior wedges a delicate defence-splitter down the inside-left channel. Bellingham times his run perfectly to chest down, but Musso comes off his line to smother. Bellingham extends a leg to contest a ball that was only briefly loose, and is booked for the challenge.
34 min: Tchouameni, half asleep, gives up possession in the centre circle. For a second, it looks as though Lookman will tear clear, but the Europa League final’s hat-trick hero miscontrols and allows Rudiger to tidy up.
33 min: This is very scrappy now.
31 min: The crowd are still giving it plenty, despite the lack of drama.
29 min: Ruggeri finds a bit of space on the left and crosses low. Tchouameni hooks clear. This game still hasn’t taken off.
27 min: Ederson has a dig from distance. Wide right, but only just. Had it been on target, a few inches left, towards the top corner, Courtois might not have got to that.
25 min: De Roon scampers after a quick throw down the right. He enters the box and whips in a cross. From a tight angle, the ball pings off Militao and loops towards the top-left corner, Courtois completely wrong-footed. But it clips off the top of the bar and away. That would have been a farcical opener.
23 min: De Ketelaere knocks the ball past Rudiger on the right, only to be unceremoniously checked. A muted call for a penalty, but De Ketelaere was looking for the contact and the claim isn’t convincing. We play on.
22 min: Now it’s Real’s turn to stroke it around patiently. This game hasn’t quite taken off. Plenty of time left yet for the 2024-25 season to turn into a campaign for the ages.
20 min: Djimsiti attempts to release De Ketelaere down the inside-right channel but overcooks the pass. Goal kick. Shame for Atalanta, because De Ketelaere was in a big pocket of space just inside the Real box.
19 min: Atalanta, having just shipped a couple of decent chances, calm things down with some careful passing in the middle of the park.
17 min: Carvalal curls a low cross in from the right. Vinícius Júnior is inches away from toe-poking it home from six yards, but can’t quite extend his leg far enough. Uncut toenails, and that was the opening goal.
15 min: Valverde romps into acres on the right and rolls across for Mbappé, whose eyes light up, ten yards out. He opens his body and shoots, but Hien arrives to block bravely. The first chance of Mbappé’s Real career. There will be others.
14 min: Mendy releases Rodrygo down the left with a raking pass, but the Real striker is forced to turn tail by Kolašinac.
12 min: Zappacosta goes down while contesting a loose ball with Mendy. There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of contact, but the Atalanta man has taken some sort of whack upside his head. On comes the physio to fit an ostentatious webbed bandage over his noggin. Thankfully Zappacosta is otherwise good to continue.
10 min: Atalanta keeper Musso, the ball at his feet, is very nearly closed down by Vinícius Júnior. He hacks away just in time. Then a tussle in midfield between Ederson and Valverde, the former with his arms around the latter’s waist from behind. It earns Ederson the first booking of the game. A slightly harsh one, if we’re being honest.
8 min: That’s given Atalanta a boost, and they gain their first foothold in the game with some assured possession in the middle of the park.
6 min: De Ketelaere slips Zappacosta into space down the right with a cute pass. Zappacosta reaches the byline but can’t work out whether to cross or shoot, and eventually does neither. Lookman is then harshly penalised for a nudge on Militão in the middle, and the whistle goes. A first flash of promise for the Italians, though.
5 min: Mbappé gets his first meaningful touch, just inside the Atalanta box on the left. He’s crowded out of it by De Roon and Hien, but the sense of expectation was palpable when the new man took up possession.
4 min: Vinícius Júnior is clattered by Hien out on the left. He picks up possession from the free kick and wins the game’s first corner. Rodrygo takes, and it’s cleared with ease. It’s all Real in these very early exchanges.
2 min: It’s not long before Real snaffle possession and start stroking the ball around. Rodrygo drops a shoulder in an attempt to skip past Kolašinac on the right only to be skittled. A chance to load the box and fling a free kick into the mixer … but Real opt against it, and restart the game with a tappity-tap-tap.
Atalanta get the ball rolling. Their new signings Mateo Retegui and Ben Godfrey on the bench.
The teams emerge from the tunnel! Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal carries the European Cup; his opposite number Marten de Roon holds the Europa League trophy. Both pots are popped up on a plinth, then the teams line up for pre-match photos. Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in white, Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta in blue and black. We’ll be off in a minute! There’s expectation in the air, albeit giving off a gentle hum rather than a crackle. Excited, Charles Antaki? “I don’t think I am. Real Madrid will probably win, so why don’t we just go to penalties directly – but to make it last a bit longer, and give people in the stadium a bit more value for their money, make it best of say 35 kicks, maybe? Or 100 if that doesn’t seem worth the effort to get to Warsaw.”
Should Real win tonight, they’ll become the most successful club in Super Cup history. File alongside their 15 European Cups, two Uefa Cups, five Club World Cups and three Intercontinental Cups, and they’re pretty good at international football. There’s a Cup Winners’ Cup shaped hole on their resumé, mind, the footballing equivalent of Don Bradman’s 99.94, John Hewitt the Eric Hollies of this particular piece. Anyway, that Super Cup roll of honour …
5: AC Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid
4: Liverpool
3: Atlético Madrid
2: Anderlecht, Ajax, Juventus, Valencia, Bayern Munich, Chelsea
1: Dynamo Kyiv, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Aberdeen, Steaua Bucureşti, Porto, Mechelen, Manchester United, Parma, Lazio, Galatasaray, Sevilla, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Manchester City
… and any old excuse to post this stone-cold classic.
Real Madrid make three changes to the team that started the Champions League final. Kylian Mbappé makes his competitive debut for his new club, while Aurélien Tchouameni and Éder Militão return to the first XI. Eduardo Camavinga drops to the bench, while Nacho has left for Al-Qadsiah and Toni Kroos has retired.
There are two changes to the Atalanta team sent out to win the Europa League final. Captain Marten de Roon returns along with Mario Pašalić; Gianluca Scamacca has ruptured his ACL while Teun Koopmeiners – probably Juventus bound but a possible last-ditch target for Liverpool – has been left out of the squad after sacking off training.
The teams
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Eder Militao, Rudiger, Mendy, Valverde, Tchouameni, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, Mbappe.
Subs: Lunin, Camavinga, Modric, Guler, Endrick, Lucas, Vallejo, Ceballos, Garcia, Diaz, Gonzalez, Ramon.
Atalanta: Musso, Djimsiti, Hien, Kolasinac, Zappacosta, de Roon, Ederson Silva, Ruggeri, Pasalic, De Ketelaere, Lookman.
Subs: Carnesecchi, Rossi, Godfrey, Sulemana, Bakker, Cassa, Palestra, Retegui, Comi, Tornaghi, Manzoni, Vavassori.
Referee: Sandro Scharer (Switzerland).
Preamble
It’s 74 days since Real Madrid won their 15th European Cup …
… and 84 since Atalanta lifted their first continental prize …
… and so here we are. The Spanish giants are competing in their ninth Super Cup, the upwardly mobile Italians their first. Real Madrid go into tonight’s showdown in Warsaw as hot favourites, on account of being Real Madrid. Atalanta are good enough to spring a surprise, though, as evidenced by the proper number they did on the otherwise invincible Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final. So this could be fun. Or a thundering non-event, this being a pre-season affair after all. Kick-off is at 8pm BST, 9pm in Poland, and we’ll go straight to penalty kicks if the scores are level at the end. European football is back, baby! It’s on!
