Sassuolo tripped another great of the championship. Atalanta fell 2-1 at the Mapei Stadium, bent by the brace of an unleashed Traore in a match conducted with merit and authority by the boys of Dionisi, who took advantage of a Goddess tarnished by the efforts of the cup and with his head, inevitably, at the return of the quarterfinals of the Europa League with Leipzig. The knockout of Reggio Emilia complicates the progress of the orobics in Serie A – with a time limit with Muriel – who fall to eighth place, overtaken also by Fiorentina, and also see Lazio move away. There is no shortage of time to recover and recover, but it is clear that now in Gasperini’s mind the priority must inevitably go to Europe. Between two of the funniest teams in the Serie A panorama, the study phase practically never begins. Atalanta takes the field with an eye on the match against Leipzig next Thursday. Toloi and Zapata meet again from 1 ‘, on the other hand, two key players like Muriel and Koopmeiners rest. Dionisi does not have these “problems” and sends the best possible line-up on the field.
And there are sparks immediately, reversals in front, with the goalkeepers being the main protagonists. Sportiello saves after two minutes on Maxime Lopez’s shot fouled by Scalvini. On the opposite side Zapata varied on the whole offensive front, Boga invents, Miranchuk is a bit in the shade but the most dangerous is undoubtedly Pasalic. The midfielder on 11 ‘receives from the Colombian but finds the prompt rejected by Consiglio, who is also saved with the help of the crossbar. Among the Emilians with a Raspadori who struggles to find space to score and a Scamacca well controlled by the opposing defense, the most inspired is once again Traorè, who kicks on Sportiello’s feet at 17 ‘making the general rehearsal of the goal a few minutes later . Sassuolo in fact with a lightning restart started by Berardi and finished by Kyriakopoulos finds the advantage with the midfielder, who stops in the area and unloads behind the goalkeeper, under the crossbar.
Atalanta continues to play their game (shortly before the Miranchuk platter had ended up on the side of nothing) but with the passing of the minutes it is the hosts who are preferred and touch the doubling: the unleashed Traoré splinters the post ( thanks to the deviation of Toloi) on the umpteenth personal initiative, then it’s up to Chiriches, with his head on developments of a corner, to hit the crossbar after the smanacciata of Consiglio. In the second half Gasperini tries to give fresh energy and rhythm to his team immediately throwing Koopmeiners and Zappacosta into the fray in place of Miranchuk and Hateboer. Sassuolo, again with Traoré, still plays the game, with Sportiello keeping the Orobics afloat by closing the mirror of the door to the Ivorian attacking midfielder. The goalkeeper of the Goddess, however, can shortly after a quarter of an hour on the poisonous low shot of the number 23 of the Emilians, who concentrates and finds the winning solution from outside the area. The 2-0 definitively cut the legs of a tired and out of phase Atalanta, weighed down by the troubles of the cup. Not even the entrances of Muriel and Malinovskyi change the story of the match, which sees the guests attacking with their heads down but without conviction (Consiglio also saves on Muriel) and the neroverdi graze the trio with a diagonal from Defrel hitting the base of the post.
Atalanta thus raised the white flag despite finding Muriel’s 2-1 goal in time, good at overcoming Consiglio after a mistake by Ruan Tressoldi. A network that does not take away the merits of an organized and perky Sassuolo, now the black beast of the greats. As for the Goddess, on the other hand, now head and heart must be turned to the commitment of the Europa League which is worth a place in the semifinals.