Zidane: “It was difficult for us but in the end it’s a good result”

Ferland Mendy netted the only goal of the game in the 86th minute after his team tried to crack their ten-man opponent.

’s play has been developed after an unsteady start in this season. They’ve won four back-to-back matches in La Liga and now stand 2nd and three points behind league leaders Atletico Madrid.

The game started furiously and full of incidents. Remo Freuler was sent off for Atalanta in the 17th minute in a questionable decision before Casemiro earned a yellow card that will guarantee his absence for the second leg. 

couldn't benefit their man advantage for most of the game.

“It was difficult for us but in the end it’s a good result,”

Zinedine Zidane announced after the match in quotes carried by

. 

“It’s an important result with an away goal, but we know there’s a return leg and we have to win. It wasn’t easy, even ten against eleven. We played against a very physically strong team who were defensively very good, so it’s a good result.”

Zidane was unwilling to speak on the game-changing red card

. “I don’t know if it was excessive,”

he added.

“We didn’t play a great game, but the important thing was to win. It was difficult for us to find the spaces [when coming up against ten men]”.

Follow 

 for the