Real Madrid will look to move on into the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday holding a 1-0 lead ahead of a home clash against Atalanta.
Scoring the first goal will be huge here and bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 1.70 for Real to open the scoring while you can back Atalanta to notch the first goal with the odds at 2.25.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 15th, 7:30 P.M. (EST)
Atalanta gave themselves a mountain to climb in the opening leg with Remo Freuler picking up an early red card, but all is not lost yet for La Dea especially with the return leg played in Madrid. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side has won five straight road outings in the Champions League.
Gasperini always likes to play an extravagant style, so the minimal deficit doesn’t change much for them – Atalanta will still be out to score and Real Madrid has to be on their guard for the whole 90 minutes.
Real went to Bergamo battling a number of injuries, but they have slowly started to get everyone back. Sergio Ramos made his first appearance since January in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Elche and Eden Hazard was back in the lineup as well.
Zinedine Zidane will, however, still have a key absentee here as Casemiro is suspended. The Brazilian midfield has always provided good all-around play and balance to the team and Real’s defense could be very vulnerable without him.
Los Blancos will look to Karim Benzema to provide the necessary goals to get through to the next found. The French striker has scored in all of his last four appearances and he has seven total goals in his last seven games.
Atalanta have failed to score just seven times across all competitions this season and their offense has been on a roll since the loss to Real scoring 10 goals in four games.
“It’s a team that always plays the same way, very attacking, scoring many goals. I don’t expect anything else,” Zidane said in his pre-match press conference.
“We will have to play a great game to go through. It will not be enough to play 90-95 percent, we will have to bring out the best because they have the team to win.”
Real have managed only five wins in their last 11 Champions League games, so there’s been plenty of disappointment for Zidane in Europe over the last couple of seasons. He will hope that the team has learned from their mistakes.
