Real Madrid: 5 burning questions from the 1-0 win over Atalanta

Can Real Madrid hold Atalanta to no goals at home?

Thanks to the red card to Remo Freuler and an early injury to their star man Duvan Zapata, Atalanta had to completely change their strategy. Before the red, they were taking the fight to Real Madrid at the Gewiss Stadium and were looking very dangerous But after the sending-of and the injury, Atalanta had to move into an all-out defensive strategy to try and control the damage, knowing full well that they could not take any risks against Toni Kroos and Luka Modric.

Real Madrid will have to deal with a much tougher Atalanta at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, since it’s highly unlikely they get another red card and will probably have a fully healthy attack for 90 minutes without the need to sacrifice their attacking gameplan.

In truth, Los Merengues were very fortunate to have won 1-0, given all that happened in this match. And the 1-0 win is more relieving than anything to Madridistas, since Real didn’t exactly take advantage of facing 10 men.

Holding Atalanta to a clean sheet once is still an accomplishment, though, even considering the circumstances. But can they do it again in a high-stakes second leg while likely not having any of the advantages they enjoyed in the first 90 minutes of action?

That’s going to be the big storyline when the Champions League Round of 16 returns to the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano on Mar. 9.