Superstar trio on target as Real beats Atalanta

"This win will give us a lot, it's a great win because it was based on quality play and hard work. It's given us some breathing room... Let's hope we have more players available (in January), but we're more relaxed about it after today, absolutely."

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was so proud of his team's performance he wasn't even too upset by Retegui blazing over a golden chance to equalize in added time.

Italy forward Retegui somehow missed the target from inches out when making contact with Ademola Lookman's fizzing low cross and looked ashen faced once he realized the opportunity he had passed up.

Defeat dropped Atalanta, who scored through Lookman and De Ketelaere, down to ninth on 11 points with matches against Sturm Graz and Barcelona completing its league phase.

"It happened so fast... a draw would have possibly better reflected the balance of play but maybe, losing like we did will hurt us more and force us to improve," said Gasperini.

"The defeat had nothing to do with luck or anything like that and that means that we still need to tweak a few things to get to their level."

Agencies