Atalanta vs Real Madrid UEFA Champions League Match Preview or Key Statistics 📊
This is the first competitive encounter between Atalanta and Real Madrid. In fact, Atalanta’s only previous meeting with a Spanish side in European competition was in last season’s round of 16 when they faced Valencia – they won 8-4 on aggregate.
Real Madrid have won each of their last five UEFA Champions League away games against Italian opposition (12 goals for, 1 against) – they’d only won three of their previous 16 trips to Italy. They have also found the net in each of their last 19 matches against Italian teams, with the last side to stop them from scoring being Juventus in November 2008 (0-2).
Real Madrid have reached the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League for the 24th consecutive season, the longest such run in the history of the competition. The last time they failed to make the latter phase of the tournament was in 1996/97 – it was also the last season in which Real didn’t feature in any European competition.
Atalanta (quarter-finalists last year) are the first team since Sevilla (2007/08 & 2009/10) to reach the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League in each of their first two tournament appearances.
Atalanta are the only remaining side in this round of 16 yet to win a single home game in the UEFA Champions League this season (D2 L1).
None of Atalanta’s 15 Champions League games has ended goalless. Since last season, their matches have produced 53 goals (27 for, 26 against), an average of 3.5 per game.
70% of Atalanta’s goals in this season’s UEFA Champions League group stages were scored in the second half (7 out of 10), the highest percentage among the 16 teams left in the competition.
Atalanta defender Cristian Romero made more interceptions than any other player in this season’s UEFA Champions League group stage (24). He also won the most aerial duels (33) among players left in this season’s competition.
Despite not taking a single penalty, Atalanta striker Duván Zapata set the highest Expected Goals tally in this season’s UEFA Champions League group stage (4.28 xG). He notably had nine ‘big chances’ (scoring from three of them), also the best tally in the group phase.
Since making his debut in the competition, Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema is one of two players to have scored 10+ goals with his head, 10+ with his right foot and 10+ with his left foot in the UEFA Champions League – the other is Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s scored five goals in his last six UCL knockout games, this after netting only one in his previous 18 such games.
Zinedine Zidane has prevailed as Real Madrid manager in 12 of his 13 UEFA Champions League knockout ties (9 home/away ties and 3 finals), with the only exception coming against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in last season’s round of 16.
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