Atalanta threw away the lead and risked losing in Berne, saved only by a Luis Muriel free kick and Juan Musso saves, so now must beat Villarreal to qualify for the Champions League knockouts.

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La Dea knew Manchester United had beaten Villarreal 2-0 in the earlier kick-off, so a victory here would mean the Italians could reach the Round of 16 with just a point in their final home game against the Spaniards.

Robin Gosens, Hans Hateboer and Matteo Lovato were still out of action, but Young Boys had a huge injury list including Christian Fassnacht, goalkeeper David von Ballmoos, Mohamed Ali Camara, Cedric Zesiger, Jean-Pierre Nsame and Joel Monteiro.

The deadlock was broken within 10 minutes, as Remo Freuler pulled back from the left for Duvan Zapata, who gathered with his back to goal, spun round and the slight deflection gave the goalkeeper no chance from 12 yards.

Michel Aebischer drilled wide, while Jose Luis Palomino nodded a corner over from six yards, Mario Pasalic curled one off target and was tackled clean on goal by Sandro Lauper.

However, Young Boys equalised when an Aebischer corner found the glancing header of Jordan Siebatcheu at the near post, bouncing in off the underside of the crossbar.

Ruslan Malinovskyi’s trademark ferocious free kick stung the gloves of Guillame Faivre, but it was Palomino who restored Atalanta’s advantage with a splendid half-volley from the edge of the box on a cleared corner that flew into the far top corner.

Young Boys fought back, Juan Musso alert on Meschack Elia’s strike and rushing out on Fabian Rieder, while Felix Mambimbi’s effort was deflected over from a tricky angle.

However, Faivre made a fantastic fingertip save to deny Giuseppe Pezzella’s screamer on the volley. It proved crucial, as moments later Young Boys equalised when Atalanta were caught napping on a throw-in, knocked back from the by-line by Ngamaleu for Vincent Sierro’s strike.

La Dea visibly just switched off after the equaliser, an error almost gifting Siebatcheu a goal by sending him clear, then Silvan Hefti turning the game around with a well-placed curler into the far top corner from distance.

It still wasn’t over, as Luis Muriel came off the bench and scored with his first touch, a free kick from the edge of the box that surprised Faivre at the near post.

Musso had to make a desperate save in stoppages to prevent Lauper winning it for the Swiss outfit.

Young Boys 3-3 Atalanta

Duvan Zapata 10 (A), Siebatcheu 39 (Y), Palomino 51 (A), Sierro 80 (Y), Hefti 84 (Y), Muriel 88 (A)

9 thought on “Champions League | Young Boys 3-3 Atalanta: Dea give it away”
  1. crazy team unpredictable and very entertaining to watch. you need to maintain your momentum for 90min.
    atalanta will qualify.

  2. In the next 20 years I don’t see an Italian club winning any of the European club competitions. They all play average!

  3. The answer is money. The Spanish giants are also falling because of the same problem. Then right when Inter win the league by 12 points the owners are near bankruptcy with government limitations on top of that. But there’s still hope because in football anything can happen even tho super rich clubs like PSG and Man City makes it impossible for teams that even struggle to get permission to build a stadium in Italy to win the CL. One thing is clear tho to win the CL in this modern football ATTACKING is the only way to do it.

  4. If that was true then Atalanta would be Champions last year and this year also as they are committed to Attacking football. 3 Goals should get any team the 3 Points. They keep shooting themselves in the foot, both matches against ManU aboveall. Seems like YB was harder for them than ManU were.

    YB beat ManUtd back on Matchday 1 but people blamed Ole. Advanced stats from today clearly show superiority by Young Boys.

    It always was going to come down to the matchday 6 between the Yellow Submarines and Atalanta.

  5. At the beginning of the round most would have predicted that Man U would win and Villarreal and Atalanta would contest second place. And that’s exactly how it has transpired.
    The only advantage is Atalanta have home advantage in the last game. Otherwise it is 50/50

  6. Atalanta are turning into a typical Italian club in Europe – go a goal ahead and defend their lead. They have the ability to stay on the front foot and score 3-4 goals but instead they sit back and let teams like Man United and YB, with weak defence effectively play to their strengths. This time they were fortunate that YB gave them just enough time to equalise otherwise it would have been a defeat and they’d be relying on Man United to do them a favour to qualify. At least it’s still in their hands but they’ve wasted a great opportunity to top the group.

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