Sunday’s match was some sort of 3-way battle between, of course, the teams on the pitch, and everyone’s favorite surprise match definer: the referee. Referee Luca Pairetto was as much of an influence on the pitch than the 22 players, brandishing six yellow cards, two red cards, and two penalties, and two goals called off for offsides. But I guess the age old question applies: if the ref was equally poor perhaps on both ends of the pitch, was an advantage truly gained? The quantity of poor calls was pretty equal across both teams, but the calls against Atalanta seemed to be much more decisive, quality > quantity. With all the wildness the referee cause, the back and forth affair was unfortunately decided by a decisive Luis Muriel penalty miss- Atalanta looked too gassed after defending with ten men for 50 minutes to offer enough offensive firepower to break the 1-1 stranglehold. I think a full strength squad would have been able to hold off a Sassuolo club that seemed content to play one-twos in their own third, but the absentminded Gollini blunder changed the entire landscape of the match.
Even with Gollini’s early – perhaps questionable – departure, Atalanta still had enough offensive prowess to keep Sassuolo at bay in the first half. Remarkably Robin Gosens began the scoring in the match with a tidy finish for his 10th goal of the year, which was just another twist in a match that no one could predict. La Dea were agonizingly close to doubling its lead when a Zapata goal was called back with Hateboer offsides in the buildup (although he didn’t touch the ball), and then Vlad Chirches made a heroic block to stop a Gosens screamer right before halftime. At this point, Atalanta looked like pretty decent money to hold onto its lead. Sassuolo had four players on yellow going into halftime, and eventually Marlon’s yellow turned into a red.
But the second half was a different story. Sassuolo came out much more assertive, and won a pretty soft penalty off Toloi, subsequently buried by Berardi (if this penalty was called, the non penalty call early on Zapata makes Berardi’s goal even more infuriating). Atalanta was then saved by the linesman’s flag calling Raspadori offsides in a nice build-up that saw a Locatelli goal called back. Everything seemed to being going the Neroverdi’s way, but the game got flipped on its side again when Muriel won a penalty against Marlon, that not only saw Atalanta with a chance to take the lead, but brought the match back to 10 vs 10. Muriel’s miss was extremely poor, going right down the middle with no zip, made even worse by his slip that would’ve allowed him to net the rebound and still give Atalanta the lead. The penalty miss pretty much took the wind out of Atalanta’s sails, and they had little left in the tank to mount any sort of furious comeback in the final twenty minutes.
At the end of the day, I needed a couple of hours to sit back and let all of the wacky events marinate. There were lots of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve highlighted by Muriel’s penalty miss, but Atalanta still need to keep in perspective everything that transpired:
- They were still on the front foot with a man down in the first half against one of the league’s best attacking sides
- Gollini’s absentmindedness shouldn’t put him on the chopping block so quick and is a learning lesson
- I have confidence in Muriel’s penalties, but his last two have been poor and should knock him down the order
- At least Atalanta has an excellent penalty option going forward in Malinovskyi
- While Juventus and Milan won, neither looked great playing average and poor opponents respectively
- Napoli dropped points, putting them in a far more precarious position than Atalanta
- Atalanta still earned an extremely necessary point, in a match it probably had no business winning let alone drawing
Atalanta has a very very very favorable schedule going into the final four matchdays. While they may be tied with Milan and Juventus on points, both clubs play each other next week that should hopefully open the standings right back up. Having Parma up on the schedule next is fortunate, and everything that happened against Sassuolo should have Atalanta encouraged that they can still pull rabbits out of their hats against quality sides. Sassuolo is arguably the 7th best side in the league, and to almost steal a victory in such a manner is quite remarkable in itself. As long as Atalanta can avoid self destruct mode, everyone should still be feeling good about our Top 4 chances. A crazy day calls for an easy week, so I hope everyone can recoup and get ready for another nail-biting week of football in seven days! As always, Forza Dea!!!
