Goals from Colombians Duván Zapata and Luis Muriel and Slovenia’s Josip Ilicic, who scored a goal and gave up two assists after a restart, gave Atalanta, Real Madrid’s rivals in the Champions League knockout stages, a 4-1 victory this Sunday against Rome in the thirteenth match of Serie A.
With “Papu”, Atalanta’s leader in the last six seasons, out of the list after his tough altercations with coach Giampiero Gasperini and with few options to continue after the January market, the Bergamo team added a victory of great importance to remain in the middle of the fight for a place in the next Champions League.
This triumph allowed Gasperini’s men, who have suffered in recent weeks to manage the double weekly commitment (Serie A and European Cup), to place seventh, just three points behind Rome, fourth.
In addition, Atalanta still has to play the match on day 10 against Udinese, postponed two weeks ago due to rain.
And that the whole novelist had started in the best way. Bosnian Edin Dzeko gave him an advantage after just three minutes, and the margin could have been higher than the post was rejected by a Vaseline from Leonardo Spinazzola, one of the four former Atalanta players along with Brazilian Roger Ibañez, Bryan Cristante and Gianluca Mancini.
But Atalanta, Real Madrid’s rival in the Champions League qualifiers, remained in the game and went to restart, when Ilicic jumped on the field.
The Slovenian midfielder provided an assist for Duván’s goal, which raised the score to 1-1, and hung a perfect cross for German Robin Gosens to score in the 2-1 goal.
In Rome, where the Spaniard Borja Mayoral had no minutes, his energy was exhausted and Atalanta took advantage of it to condemn the 3-1 match of Muriel, who dribbled to the goal and scored with pleasure as soon as he jumped on field, and 4-1 of Ilicic, the award for his great performance.