Atalanta will be making their first appearance in the Super Cup, which sees the Italians face Real Madrid in Poland.
Three months after contesting their first ever continental final, Atalanta now make their debut in the UEFA Super Cup, the traditional curtain-raiser to the European season in men’s club soccer.
Atalanta qualified for the 2024 Super Cup, which is to be held in Warsaw, by winning the 2023/24 edition of the Europa League, Europe’s second-tier club competition, in May.
Atalanta end five-decade wait for trophy
Despite going into the Europa League final as underdogs, Gian Pier Gasperini’s men were 3-0 winners over Bayer Leverkusen at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. The Germans had travelled to the Irish capital on a 51-game unbeaten run stretching back to May 2023, but Ademola Lookman’s hat-trick gave Atalanta a comprehensive triumph over the Bundesliga champions, earning the Bergamo club their first major honour since winning the Coppa Italia back in 1963.
The first Italian team to contest the Super Cup since Inter Milan in 2010, Atalanta will face Real Madrid, who secured the fixture’s other berth by winning last season’s Champions League. The Spaniards won Europe’s elite club trophy for a record-extending 15th time in June, beating Borussia Dortmund at Wembley thanks to second-half goals by Dani Carvajal and Vinícius Júnior.
Madrid chasing record-breaking Super Cup win
While Atalanta will be getting their first experience of Super Cup soccer, Madrid will be making a joint-record ninth appearance in the fixture, equalling the record held by their LaLiga arch rivals, Barcelona. Los Blancos have won the Super Cup five times, and will overtake Barça and AC Milan as the event’s most decorated club if they win in Warsaw.
That is just one of a number of records that will be broken or equalled if Madrid win today.
Has the Super Cup always been contested by the UCL and UEL winners?
No. Between 1974 and 1999, the winners of the Champions League and its predecessor, the European Cup, took on the holders of the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
A tournament contested by the winners of each European country’s major domestic cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup was discontinued at the end of the 1998/99 season. This led UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, to hand a place in the Super Cup to the winner of the UEFA Cup, a competition that was rebranded as the Europa League in 2009.
Real Madrid vs Atalanta: start time, how to watch
Real Madrid take on Atalanta today, Wednesday August 14, with kick-off in Warsaw scheduled for 3 p.m. ET/12 noon PT. Viewers in the US will be able to watch the 2024 UEFA Super Cup on CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, ViX, TUDN USA and Univision.