Atalanta had the opportunity to catch Inter on 51 points, but instead suffered a surprise home defeat to Bologna with Nicola Sansone and Riccardo Orsolini on target.
La Dea were coming off back-to-back wins and hoping to stay in the race for a top four finish, but Rafael Toloi was suspended, with Matteo Ruggeri, Teun Koopmeiners and Hans Hateboer injured. Bologna still had Marko Arnautovic, Andrea Cambiaso and Nicola Bagnolini on the treatment table, but Lukasz Skorupski returned after missing the 3-0 win over Udinese with flu.
Juan Musso beat away the Kyriakopoulos scorcher, but the hosts lost Mario Pasalic to a sprained ankle in the opening stages of the game.
Atalanta had a triple chance in one move on the half-hour mark, as Skorupski made the saves on Rasmus Hojlund and the Davide Zappacosta header, around Adama Soumaoro charging down the middle Hojlund attempt.
Soumaoro also threw himself in the path of Jeremie Boga’s strike, but Bologna broke the deadlock at the dawn of the second half when Nicola Sansone sprung the offside trap on a Barrow through ball and curled into the far top corner.
Nico Dominguez should’ve scored a second, but instead tried to set up Joshua Zirkzee in a trickier position, while Hojlund’s header was parried by Skorupski on a Boga cross.
Musso had his gloves stung by a ferocious Kyriakopoulos effort, the save pushing it just beyond an attempted diving header at the back post.
Riccardo Orsolini thought he had doubled Bologna’s lead, but he was offside when turning in the rebound from a Musso save on Zirkzee. However, the yellow card for taking his shirt off while celebrating did stand and he will be suspended for the next Bologna match against Milan.
Orsolini did score a goal that counted a few minutes later and kept his shirt on, as he cut inside from the right and fired left-footed into the far bottom corner.
Luis Muriel didn’t even manage a consolation goal in stoppages, his curler palmed out of the top corner by Skorupski.
Atalanta 0-2 Bologna
Sansone 49 (B), Orsolini 86 (B)
Player statistic
| Davide Zappacosta |  |
11' |
| 49' |  |
Nicola Sansone (Assist: Musa Barrow) | ||
| 61' | |
Jhon Lucumí | ||
| José Luis Palomino | |
68' | ||
| Berat Djimsiti | |
70' | ||
| 81' | |
Riccardo Orsolini | ||
| 86' | |
Riccardo Orsolini (Assist: Joshua Zirkzee) |
Match statistic
