After terrible losses to AC Milan and Liverpool in the Champions League, Real Madrid made a vital statement on Tuesday night in Bergamo by beating the best team in Italian football this season, Atalanta, 3-2.
It was a nail-biting match, with Atalanta nearly equalizing in the dying minutes. But Real Madrid held on with more heroics from the superstar duo of Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior, overcoming an injury to early-goal hero Kylian Mbappe.
Here are the biggest stars and flops for Real Madrid from their latest Champions League performance.
Star: CM Jude Bellingham
The biggest star of the night was definitely Jude Bellingham. He wore the No. 5 kit proudly in northern Italy and produced a sublime all-around midfield performance that is typical of what he can do as the modern-day No. 10 in world football.
Bellingham scored a quality goal with his left foot, setting up the shot like a world-class right winger. He won five dribbles in total, created two chances, and had a tackle and two interceptions to provide a key defensive contribution to the Merengue cause.
All night long, Bellingham progressed play and made threatening runs off the ball. He was a great outlet for his teammates, especially the wingers, as he proved central to Real Madrid stringing together attacking moves.
Furthermore, he worked very hard off the ball to challenge the tight man-marking of the Atalanta defense, often causing disarray with their assignments by aggressively trying to get into the box.
Flop: RB Lucas Vazquez
Lucas Vazquez could have ended up with a much worse day at the office and real egg on his face if Mateo Retegui had scored the winner, as the Italian international missed very uncharacteristically within the six-yard box. He had a subpar performance, all told, as a right back, predictably getting torched by a legitimately world-class Ademola Lookman.
Real Madrid don’t have the personnel to paper over Vazquez’s issues like they used to. Aurelien Tchouameni isn’t Casemiro defensively, and with Eder Militao out at center back, Vazquez no longer gets to benefit from playing next to the best RCB in world football.
If his calling card is his offense, Vazquez didn’t provide nearly enough of that either, failing to create a single chance for Real Madrid. They won and score three goals, though, so that’s not as big of a storyline as it could have been.
Star: RW Brahim Diaz
There’s no doubt that Brahim Diaz deserves a lot more mainstream praise than he gets, and if he played for literally any team other than Real Madrid, he’d be getting more world-class shouts for his work since rejoining the Merengues to start the 2023/24 season.
Brahim wasn’t bad with AC Milan, but he didn’t have the same caliber of teammates or coaching and was often isolated against three or four defenders off the dribble.
At Real Madrid, Brahim has more space, more opportunity to invert from the right side with his ambipedal skill-set, and the right kind of teammates to exchange one-twos with.
Brahim created havoc to the Atalanta defense, cooking a familiar foe to the tune of three chances created, an assist, two fouls drawn, and a whopping four dribbles completed.
In tight spaces, Brahim is one of the best players in LaLiga, exceeding his peers even by the high standards set by other playmakers in the Spanish top flight. Brahim is a real X-Factor for Real Madrid on Champions League nights and was irresistible off the ball in Bergamo.
Star: LW Vinicius Junior
It’s no coincidence that the Real Madrid attack revved up in a big game and the club were able to shine on a Champions League night with Vinicius Jr. back in the lineup.
The No. 7 is clearly the leader on the pitch for Real Madrid and the man who makes it all click, bringing the fight to defenders with every play and offering one-of-a-kind, game-changing ability.
Vini Jr. capitalized opportunistically for the go-ahead goal at 2-1, finishing the game with a goal, an assist, and two dribbles completed in a striker’s performance from the left wing.
There’s no doubt that when it comes to finding that quality in the final third, Vinicius Jr. is the leader at Real Madrid with Kylian Mbappe still yet to find his best form, and who would have thought we’d be saying that in 2024 back when he was missing obvious chances against Atalanta in 2021?
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.