ADVANTAGE REAL MADRID
▶ Mendy’s late strike puts team in sight of ECL quarterfinals
Ferland Mendy put Real Madrid within touching distance of the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday with the late strike that sank 10- man Atalanta 1- 0 in Bergamo.
The French left- back’s curling effort came four minutes from time in a last- 16, first- leg clash in which the hosts had to play a man down for over 70 minutes, giving Zinedine Zidane’s side the advantage heading into the second leg in Madrid on March 16.
“We didn’t have a great game tonight, but the most important thing was the result, scoring away was important for us,” said Zidane.
“It’s a very good result against an Atalanta team even at ten, because they defended very well.
“The tie is open. We are going to have a great return match.”
Atalanta had attacked early but the game was transformed when Swiss midfielder Remo Freuler was harshly send off in the 17th minute for tripping Mendy at the edge of the penalty area.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s woes continued with forward Duvan Zapata limping off after half an hour with a muscular problem with midfielder
Mario Pasalic coming off the bench.
“The game was ruined,” said Gasperini.
“I just got banned for saying something in Serie A, if I say something now then UEFA will ban me. But this is football suicide. We cannot have referees who’ve never played the game and don’t know the difference between a challenge and a foul.
“If they can’t tell the difference, then they ought to go and get a different job, frankly. They should get people who played football to referee instead.”
“We defended well and almost brought home the 0- 0, but it would’ve certainly been more entertaining with 11 against 11,” he added.
“We might’ve lost anyway, I am not complaining about the result, but we at least could’ve played our game.”
‘ Many casualties’
Spanish midfielder Isco got a rare start up front for injury- hit Real Madrid playing alongside Marco Asensio and Vinicius.
The 13- time European champions were without striker Karim Benzema due to an ankle problem with an injury list also including Sergio Ramos, Eden Hazard and Dani Carvajal.
“It’s true that there are many casualties, but the players who are here are doing well, committed, every time there is a change we adapt,” added Zidane.
But Zidane’s side failed to truly make the most of the extra man despite coming closest to breaking through in the first half with a Casemiro header, with Nacho, Isco and Vinícius Junior also threatening and Luka Modric firing over.
Atalanta continued to attack, with Luis Muriel missing a chance to give the hosts the lead four minutes before the break with a long- range strike that went just wide.
Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini then kept the scores level when he stopped a Casemiro header on a free kick before the halftime whistle.
Josip Ilicic came on in place of Muriel after 56 minutes.
The Slovenian scored five goals against Valencia at this stage of the competition last season, but was substituted four minutes from time after a poor display.
Soon afterward Madrid broke through thanks to Mendy, who beat Gollini with a stylish, curling effort into the top corner.
Madrid have the advantage going into the second leg having missed out on the quarterfinals for the last two seasons.
“Normally there are a lot of goals in games against Atalanta, we were expecting a difficult game but after the red it was normal they would defend deep,” said Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Atalanta need a historic effort in the away leg to reach the last eight for a second successive year.
The Bergamo side won their last16, first- leg clash against Valencia 4- 1 a year ago in front of 45,000 spectators in Milan’s San Siro.
That match was considered to have been one of the reasons behind the acceleration of coronavirus in Italy with Bergamo at the epicenter of the country’s outbreak.
The are in their second Champions League campaign, but Wednesday’s match was the first knockout fixture in their home stadium which underwent renovations last season.
And thousands of fans ignored the Italian team’s plea to stay away with a party atmosphere outside the stadium with a fireworks display.
American Grant Holloway broke Colin Jackson’s long- standing 60- meter indoor hurdles world record at Wednesday’s meeting in Madrid.
The 110- meter hurdles world champion ran 7.29 seconds to shave one- hundredth of a second off the record Briton Jackson set in 1994.
Holloway had already run 7.32 seconds in the heats and blitzed the competition in customary style on the way to claiming the new record, with Britain’s Andrew Pozzi finishing second in 7.51 seconds.
“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect race, but I tied my PR in the heat and that usually means I run faster in the final,” World Athletics reported Holloway as saying.
“I said before the race that if the record fell, it fell... I know that it is not going to be in the record books forever and when I fall asleep tonight – if I fall asleep – it will already be in the past.
“The world record outdoors [ 12.80 seconds] is definitely in my sights but I want to let all this soak in first, then my priority is win the Olympic Trials and then the Olympic gold medal.”
The 23- year- old had been in great form all winter, running under 7.40 seconds 10 times.
His two blistering runs on Wednesday – added to his performances in Lievin on February 9 ( 7.32), Fayetteville on January 24 ( 7.35) and Birmingham in March 2019 ( 7.35) – mean Holloway has run five of the eight best times in the history of the discipline.
He is undefeated in 41 races over 60 meters since making his senior hurdles debut just over four years ago, but will have to wait another two years for a chance to shine at the World Indoor Athletics Championships.
The event in Nanjing had been pushed back to March this year due to the coronavirus pandemic but was postponed again to 2023 late last year.
However, there is much anticipation over whether he can surpass his best 110- meter hurdles time of 12.98 seconds at this year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Holloway had initially not wanted to hold a sign which read “world record” while being pressed by photographers, before finally complying with his trademark smile.
The Netherlands’ Nadine Visser ran a season’s best- equaling time of 7.81 seconds as she won the women’s 60- meter hurdles.
Gudaf Tsegay claimed the honors in the women’s 3,000 meters with 8 minutes 22.65 seconds – the second fastest indoor time in history – and looked in good shape after claiming the 1,500- meter indoor world record earlier this month.