Atalanta centre-forward Duvan Zapata talked through his extraordinary solo strike to beat Torino and keep them in the race for a Champions League spot. ‘I didn’t actually hit it that hard.’
The Colombia international’s last two seasons have been dominated by injury problems and he had not found the back of the net since the game with Lecce in November 2022.
He ended that drought in style, running down the left, selling Perr Schuurs a dummy with the change of direction and smashing a right-foot finish into the far top corner across Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.
“It was a great move, a good finish from a tight angle. I didn’t actually hit it that hard, it was more about the right direction on the ball,” Zapata insisted on Sky Sport Italia.
“It was a tough match, Torino always play at a high intensity with a high press, but we won another important match for us. We are well aware that the games count more towards the end of the season. We are up there, it depends on us and if we are fortunate, maybe other head-to-heads will go our way.
“As long as we keep winning the way we did this evening, we can keep climbing the table.”
It was his first goal in over five months, so can we finally say that Duvan Zapata is back?
“I hope so. I try to give my best, I had been looking for the goal and it arrived. Hopefully Lucho (Muriel) can also break his drought, as we all need the goals.”
Duvan Zapata is now just one goal off the record of Atalanta’s all-time top scorer in Serie A.
“Don’t remind me! If it needs to come, it will come.”