The goals of the Colombians Duván Zapata and Luis Muriel and the Slovenian Josip Ilicic, who scored a goal and gave two assists after leaving the second half, gave Atalanta, Real Madrid’s rival in the Champions League round of 16, a 4-1 win this Sunday against Roma in the thirteenth round of Serie A.
With “Papu”, leader of Atalanta in the last six seasons, off the list after his tough altercation with coach Giampiero Gasperini and with few options to follow after the January market, the Bergamo team he added a victory of great importance to stay in the middle of a fight for a place in the next Champions League.
This victory allowed Gasperini’s men, who suffered in recent weeks to manage the double weekly commitment (Serie A and European Cup), to place seventh, just three points behind Roma, fourth.
In addition, Atalanta still have to play the match of the tenth day against Udinese, postponed two weeks ago due to rain.
And that the Romanist ensemble had started in the best way. Bosnian Edin Dzeko gave him the lead after just three minutes and the margin could have been greater than repelling the stick a Vaseline by Leonardo Spinazzola, one of the four former Atalanta along with Brazilian Roger Ibáñez, Bryan Cristante and Gianluca Mancini.
But Atalanta, rivals Real Madrid in the round of 16 of the Champions League, stayed in the game and came out on top, when they jumped on the field Ilicic.
The Slovenian midfielder gave an assist for Duván’s goal, which went up 1-1 on the scoreboard, and hung a perfect cross for the German Robin Gosens to head the 2-1 goal.
In Rome, in which the Spaniard Borja Mayoral did not have minutes, his energies ran out and Atalanta took advantage of it to sentence the match with the 3-1 of Muriel, who haggled the goalkeeper and scored in pleasure just jumping on the field, and Ilicic’s 4-1, the reward for his great performance.