Yes the title may be a bit misleading, but for at least a hot minute, La Dea find themselves back in the Top 4! Providing a miracle by Crotone tomorrow against Juventus, it is not likely to stay as such; but overall Atalanta took care of business and look like an even better shout to fight for Champion’s League spots than they did two weeks ago. With a convincing win against a crippled Napoli squad, Atalanta fired home goals at will in the second half; and without a moment of brilliance from Zielinski and a brain fart from Gosens could have picked up a clean sheet in the process.
With a match that saw four goals, it would be irresponsible for me not to start with the brilliant play of Romero. Besides netting the decisive fourth goal, he shut down Osimhen, and perhaps more importantly got redemption for his embarrassing display early in the year against Napoli. While he faced Napoli in the Coppa, having him come out and boss the game against the team that made a lot question if he had the chops to fight for starters minutes in Atalanta is admirable. Of course he has shown plenty of times that he’s Atalanta’s best defender since that shambolic display last October, but it feels nice to get one up on Osimhen who caused him all sorts of fits last time out. There’s next to nothing he cannot do well out of the centerback position.
And moving on from one essential defender to another, not enough can be said about the presence and play of Joakim Maehle. His injury scares can fortunately be put to bed, and his command of the right side of the pitch makes it look like he has been Hateboer’s understudy for 2 years; not 2 months. Being thrust into a not so enviable position, he’s taken the bull by the horns and is playing world class on the right. That street move on Mario Rui will keep him up at night!
Offensively, were clicking again! No relying on last minute heroics from Muriel – everything was free-flowing and everyone was getting in on the action. It’s quite a testament to the squad’s depth when Ilicic sat in the stands for the entire match, and Atalanta still score four. And it really has all to do with the Colombians – Zapata and Muriel – who were involved in all four goals. If their first touches are on point, they are quite a deadly combo, and are a nice change of pace from Ilicic that always keeps teams guessing. Now I’m not saying to start 9 and 91 together every game, but the luxury of forcing teams to gameplan for both styles of play is extremely beneficial.
All in all, Sunday’s thoroughly convincing victory has a waterfall of positive effects. Ilicic gets rest before Real, they’ve got huge momentum going into their biggest European contest ever, the offense is flowing again, Maehle doesn’t look to have any ill effects from his injury, and we’re right in the thick of the Top-4 race again. Today was the reason why it’s so fun to be an Atalanta fan, let’s keep enjoying the ride and give Madrid all they can handle on their trip to Northern Italy on Wednesday! As always, Forza La Dea!
