The most beautiful Toro wins against the ugliest Atalanta, the pupil Juric gives a football lesson to his teacher Gasperini: the Granata get back up after the defeat in Bologna and beat the Nerazzurri 3-0. Between the brace of the great former Zapata, who chooses not to celebrate, there is space for Sanabria’s goal from the spot, for a victory that brings the team to four points behind sixth-placed Fiorentina. (THE MATCH REPORT)
Juric excludes Radonjic and Pellegri from the squad and brings Milinkovic-Savic back between the posts after the Bologna bench. For the rest it is the same formation as Dall’Ara with the exception of Vojvoda, who wins the run-off with Lazaro. Ricci recovers for the bench, in front of the Sanabria-Zapata tandem, the Colombian is in his first match as a former player against Atalanta. Gasperini also chooses a midfielder to act as his arm, De Roon, placed in the trio together with Scalvini and Djimsiti. De Ketelaere returns from muscle problems and starts, the surprise is Miranchuk from the first minute: the Russian, former Toro, is chosen as Lookman’s attack partner, while Muriel sits on the bench and Scamacca is out of action due to an adductor injury .
It’s a tough challenge, referee Piccinini doesn’t want to lose control of it and so in the first ten minutes he hands Linetty and Scalvini a yellow card on each side. Gasperini is forced to change after 19 minutes, when Djimsiti raises the white flag and is replaced by Bakker. Toro begins to take the field, the lead arrives at half-time: Scalvini mistimes Vlasic’s pass to Zapata, the Colombian does not forgive Musso and scores the most classic of the former’s goals, without celebrating. The Granata took a risk on only one occasion, with Milinkovic-Savic blocking De Ketelaere, and then often breaking through with Bellanova, but the winger always got lost at the moment of the cross. Overall, however, it was a good Toro in the first half, while Gasperini shouted during the break and for the second half he chose Muriel and Holm instead of Lookman and Hateboer. His Atalanta, however, also started the second half badly: Piccinini had to use the VAR monitor to see Scalvini’s hold on Buongiorno, Sanabria showed up from the spot and wrong-footed Musso for the second goal. The blow was too hard for the Orobic team, who never got up again and allowed Toro to manage time and the ball, with the Granata team only allowing one shot to Pasalic. And, indeed, in recovery they also found Zapata’s hat trick. Toro reaches 3000 points in Serie A in its history, Gasperini collects the fourth match in a row without a win and slips to eighth place.
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