A tally of 16 goals across the two Sunday games able to take place offered relief from conflict, confusion and CoronavirusAtalanta and Lecce did their best to pick up the slack on a weekend missing its headline act. Cagliari and Roma, too. For the second week running, Serie A’s Sunday schedule was reduced to two games, with the rest all postponed amid disagreement over the appropriate response to Italy’s Coronavirus outbreaks. This time, the cancellations included the Derby d’Italia.No other match could capture the imagination like that one: Juventus taking on Internazionale in the first season when both have truly contested the title against one another for almost two decades. But the four teams who did take the field entertained...
Inspired substitutions gave Thiago Motta a dream start in the dugout while Atalanta enjoyed a 10-goal swing from midweekStudies tell us school bullies have often been victims of bullying themselves. Watching Atalanta humiliate Udinese on Sunday afternoon, it was tempting to wonder whether something similar might apply to football teams.Beaten 5-1 by Manchester City in midweek, the Bergamo club returned home to thrash their next opponent 7-1. They even allowed Udinese the illusory joy of scoring the first goal, just as they had experienced at the Etihad.⚽ It's a second for Luis Muriel, and Atalanta are running riot against Udinese!4⃣-1⃣ to Gasperini's men pic.twitter.com/mnEE9k1VYV Related: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 top scorers 2019-20 Atalanta 7-1...
Football fairytales eventually hit financial reality, but Atalanta still hope to dance at the Champions League ballIf you exclusively watched Atalanta in the Champions League this season, you might have concluded that this Cinderella story had reached midnight. Thrashed 4-0 by Dinamo Zagreb, and then beaten at home by Shakhtar Donetsk, the debutants are rushing to exit the European ball that they wished so desperately to attend. Their run in the tournament could effectively be ended by Manchester City over the next two matchdays, starting at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.There are no happily-ever-afters for footballing fairytales. Financial realities always come to bear eventually, and Atalanta remain a team representing a town of little more than 100,000 people. Even...
The champions may have landed De Ligt, Rabiot and Ramsey but all has not run smoothly for Maurizio Sarri this summerItalian football’s summer break began in much the same way as the season had ended: with Juventus way out in front. By 1 July they had concluded the free agent signings of Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot. Then they did something far more audacious: signing Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax for €75m.Even for a club that signed Cristiano Ronaldo one year previously, it felt like a landmark deal. When did an Italian side last win a bidding war for one of European football’s most coveted young talents? At 19 years old, De Ligt had already started in a Champions League...
Gian Piero Gasperini’s great entertainers made club history, while Inter edged Milan to a top-four place tooIn Milan, Florence and Ferrara they waited. In Rome and Reggio Emilia, too. The final six games of the Serie A season had been scheduled to kick off simultaneously, to ensure a level playing field for teams chasing a Champions League berth, as well as those fighting against relegation. But somebody, somewhere, was late.Referees tutted and glared at their watches, waiting for the signal to commence. Ultras completed their planned choreographies and wondered what to do next. Players bounced and bellowed at one another in overwrought voices. It was not exactly quiet before the storm, yet there was a moment of exquisite tension shared...