Rafael Toloi and debutant Ademola Lookman gave Atalanta a precious opening victory away to Sampdoria, but the hosts hit the woodwork twice with Abdelhamid Sabiri and Fabio Quagliarella.
Both teams were coming off a summer of great change in their squads. La Dea missed injured Merih Demiral, Davide Zappacosta and new signing Ederson, while Remo Freuler had flown out for a medical with Nottingham Forest and Jose Luis Palomino was suspended following a failed doping test. The Blucerchiati had Maxime Leverbe suspended, Manolo Gabbiadini and Andrea Conti injured.
Samp had the ball in the net after 13 minutes when Mehdi Leris collected a ball over the top, shrugged off Joakim Maehle and pulled back for Ciccio Caputo to sweep in from 10 yards. However, it was disallowed following a VAR review for the push on Maehle.
Maehle was involved again when he incredibly failed to score from a yard, hitting the post as Hans Hateboer rolled it across the face of goal to the back post.
Atalanta did get the goal soon after, as Duvan Zapata’s cross from a tricky angle was nodded down at the back post by Mario Pasalic for Rafael Toloi to come sliding in from close range.
Duvan Zapata and Abdelhamid Sabiri forced saves, while Caleb Okoli couldn’t keep his header on target at the far stick.
Emil Audero narrowly avoided straying outside his penalty area when grabbing a long ball off the head of Duvan Zapata.
Sabiri thought he’d equalised with a ferocious free kick that split the wall, but smacked against the base of the far post.
Fabio Quagliarella came off the bench and his low volley flashed across the face of goal to skim the upright, then the veteran’s right-foot curler clipped the top of the crossbar.
Atalanta had the ball in the net after 89 minutes, as Duvan Zapata ran from his own half and whipped the cross in for Ademola Lookman, but it was ruled offside.
Lookman did get his goal in stoppages on a Ruslan Malinovskyi assist, cutting back cheekily to send Omar Colley to ground, then beating Audero one-on-one.
Sampdoria 0-2 Atalanta
Toloi 26 (A), Lookman 95 (A)