Atalanta’s campaign goes from bad to worse with another home defeat, this time to high-flying Hellas Verona, which leaves European qualification in serious doubt.
Last week had already been deeply disappointing after their Europa League quarter-final exit to RB Leipzig, with Rafael Toloi, Joakim Maehle and Josip Ilicic unavailable, while Hellas welcomed back Antonin Barak after an illness.
It was a well-worked team move for the first chance, Ruslan Malinovskyi surging forward in a give and go with Duvan Zapata to sting Lorenzo Montipò’s gloves.
Gianluca Caprari fired over, while Davide Zappacosta and Ivan Ilic wasted from promising positions.
Verona came so close on 25 minutes, Marco Davide Faraoni sliding in at the back post to meet a Darko Lazovic cross, volleying it onto the upright.
Moments later, Caprari also grazed the frame of the goal, his free kick bouncing off the top of the crossbar.
Juan Musso stuck out a leg to deny Giovanni Simeone at the near post, but Koray Gunter was hauled off by Igor Tudor just 30 minutes in after risking a second yellow card for hauling down Duvan Zapata. Malinovskyi followed as he sustained a knee injury.
Duvan Zapata volleyed wide after a knockdown from 10 yards, as did Hans Hateboer after a good run from Jeremie Boga.
Verona had the ball in the net on the stroke of half-time when Federico Ceccherini nodded in a Simeone dink over the goalkeeper. The offside flag was raised, but VAR corrected the decision and allowed the defender his first ever goal for Hellas.
Duvan Zapata went close again by drilling inches wide, but the second goal was an odd stroke of luck. Ivan Ilic combined with Adrien Tameze to get into the box, his shot hit Musso’s leg, ricocheted back off Teun Koopmeiners and into the net.
It was very nearly 3-0 moments later, Musso this time with the crucial save on Lazovic, while Montipò got down to palm a Jose Luis Palomino header off the line.
Kevin Lasagna came off the bench and immediately thumped the upright with a ferocious long-range effort.
However, Atalanta got back into it with Giorgio Scalvini’s free header from 12 yards on a Zappacosta cross.
Zappacosta went for it himself, a half-volley skimming the near top corner, but the late push was not enough to avoid a fourth defeat in the last five competitive games.
Atalanta 1-2 Verona
Ceccherini 45 (V), Koopmeiners og 55 (V), Scalvini 82 (A)
Shocking how quick Atalanta‘s downfall has gone. From a top 4 team to mid table one.
They keep selling their best players so I don’t think this is a surprise but for me it was the Gomez transfer…. with that guy Atalanta were always unpredictable in attack.
Dropping like a stone. Now European football for them it looks like, barring a string of wins.
Pity, because at least they have a go in Europe, which is more than can be said of the others who seem to be afraid of their own shadows.
But they play good attacking football…
Amazing how quickly people flip from Atalanta being the template to follow and Gasp being a genius to surprise when teams park the bus and hit them on repeated counters. They’ve been sussed out.
Why is their stadium taking forever to finish? They should just fold the entire league.
Once again a foolish comment from NOrata. Stop talking about soccer you don’t know anything
Shut up Norata.
No team that has Rugani or Demiral in it can succeed. Just look at Demiral’s tackle prior to Verona‘s first goal. I wouldn’t let Demiral play for Salernitana, let alone play as a regular starter for Atalanta. Just awful.
@Truth You can’t handle the truth
@MG I don’t really have to say anything… The results speak for themselves. They’re 8th and sliding. With the form of the others, it’s unlikely they’ll get into Europe. And @truth, we call it football because it’s played with feet for the most part.
Every cycle has a beginning and end. Especially true for smaller clubs. Remember when Leicester was the next big thing.
@Solointer they got a small budget and it’s not to say they place their players on the market at the drop of a dime. Gosens contract was running out and he wanted to sign with Inter and Papu Gomez had a falling out with the manager and had to leave that’s why Sevilla only got him for $5Mil. Christian Romero also wanted to leave when Tottenham came calling but he couldn’t until Atalanta found a replacement.
It’s the ‘football cycle’. It’s coming to an end for Atalanta.
The fall of Atalanta… they have had a bad run, some terrible luck and some terrible decisions given against them. Thay are still 8th, something they would have been delighted with not so long ago, they can still catch a couple of teams above them. They have been playing well just missing that little something they had in the final third.
Maybe not playing in Europe might even help Atalanta, there needs to be changes, indeed, I think a lot of the above negativity is just people spouting cliches.