Date: January 12, 2021
Time: 17:30 CET, 11:30 EST
The third of the four contests Atalanta will participate in this season kicks off against Venezia on Wednesday. The Venetians denied Atalanta the opportunity of playing its mates by beating Ternana back in December, so Atalanta now has an added benefit of inflicting some midweek pain on Serie A’s newly promoted side.
The Coppa Italia has been a gut-wrenching tournament for Atalanta the last few years. Gian Piero Gasperini’s men have reached the finals two out of the last three seasons, only to lose to Lazio and Juventus in disappointing fashion. Given Atalanta’s ability to get within inches of hoisting the tropy, the Coppa is undoubtedly an annual objective for the club, and this year is no different. The persistence of COVID through the league and the squad makes fielding lineups trickier, and forces Gasperini’s hand on how to utilize his squad. Should he go all out on Wednesday versus Venezia, or hold back a bit and save the big guns for Inter Milan on the weekend?
Fortunately, Atalanta should not face too much resistance from a Venezia side ill-equipped to effectively play twice per week. Let’s see what’s in store!
Atalanta Passione’s Predicted Starting XI
With the Argentine duo back in full swing after recovering from COVID, a new positive case emerged from the match squad that faced Udinese last Sunday. Until further information becomes available, we can only assume the same players will be available on Wednesday. As far as lineups go, there shouldn’t be anything too unusual; however, I think we see Giorgio Scalvini. The youngster played some big minutes in the middle of Atalanta’s spell without defenders, and the youth prospect definitely deserves some match time (unless, of course he’s the COVID casualty). Gasperini demonstrated faith in the Scalvini by permitting Lovato to leave on loan to Cagliari, so its only natural that the just turned 18 year old gets a shot in a less risky environment.
Elsewhere on the pitch, La Dea can only play with the cards it has been dealt. Duvan Zapata and Robin Gosens are likely still unfit, and Atalanta needs to do its upmost to ensure that Big Duvan has a chance to play against Inter on Sunday. Personally, I want to see Aleksei Miranchuk get another start. He looked good against Udinese, and probably has enough flair in his bag of tricks to take on Venezia.
Wednesday is important for La Dea, but the most important result may be surviving rather than thriving. Not surviving in just scraping by with a result; but guaranteeing that the squad comes out of the 90 minutes unscathed. The added trickery of not knowing one day from the next who will become sidelined with the motion of a nostril swab is a very difficult balancing act to manage. Again, Atalanta will be the benefactor of depth, and hopefully a clean and rather uninteresting match is ahead of the boys. As always, Forza Dea!!!
