Date: January 19, 2023
Time: 15:00 CET | 9:00 EST
After Atalanta pulled off an improbable comeback to draw against Spezia in early January, its a little disingenuous to say that La Dea will be out looking for revenge against Thiago Motta’s team. Perhaps its better to say, Atalanta will be out to write the wrongs of its uneven halves of football and seek to perform for 90 minutes rather than 35 minutes.
Surely if the offensive barrage against Salernitana, that saw Davide Nicola sacked and then resuscitated, carries over on Thursday, Atalanta should have few problems. However, Coppa Italia matches are always tricky, and tournament favorites Napoli and Milan already witnessed what happens when you don’t field your best eleven players. Knowing the priority that Gian Piero Gasperini tends to place on Italy’s knockout tournament, you’d think he’d opt for his strongest lineup. But the ominous encounter with Juventus looming in the shadows of the weekend may change his attitude on the importance of Thursday’s game – opting to give match time to some players that have fallen off the radar in recent weeks.
Nick’s Predicted Starting XI
We live in a crazy world where both Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata lead the line of Atalanta’s B-team, but that’s how fast things can change in football. Amid the rumors of Zapata leaving for a club fighting a relegation scrap in England, the Colombian may be hoping to put on a worthy performance that convinces the squad to either keep him or set their selling ambitions a bit higher up the food chain. Does anyone want to play for Everton!?
Sadly Teun Koopmeiners will miss out on Juventus this weekend, so I imagine he becomes a lock to start in the middle. Alongside him, I hope is Ederson who needs some Spezia redemption after getting bullied around the pitch in the Serie A encounter.
Trying to predict who starts at the rest of spots becomes a bit tricky. Atalanta’s depth comes through when picking rotation players – and Hans Hateboer, Matteo Ruggeri, Nadir Zortea, Joakim Maehle, and Brandon Soppy all have legitimate claims to get starting nods. I lean towards the Italian duo, as I imagine Gasperini goes with experience in a few days time against Juventus – even though I think we would all like to see what Soppy can do to contribute to what could turn into a dynamite offense.
Could this also be one of Berat Djimsiti’s final performances in Atalanta colors? Admittedly, I forgot about the Albanian for a minute when mulling over the squad selection, but there doesn’t seem to be a path for him to play meaningful minutes in Serie A moving forward. One more good appearance for him in black and blue would be nice to see, both for personal reasons and his sticker price.
Atalanta Player to Watch – Nadir Zortea
Against Salernitana, Zortea scored his first goal for Atalanta with the composure and precision of a striker. Unfortunately his enthusiasm for scoring his first goal with his boyhood club was taken as a slight by the Salernitana ultras (where Zortea played last season), when in reality he just got lost in the moment (as he should have). Still it will be good to see Zortea to continue his positive performance against Spezia, as he preps himself for a likely loan move for the rest of Serie A season.
The winner of Thursday’s bout gets to punch its ticket for a future duel with Inter Milan. There’s sadly no cruise control available in what is turning into the difficult part of the bracket. Regardless, there are no easy games in elimination tournaments, so Atalanta have to ensure the focus is right and not get pulled too far either reminiscing about the historical beatdown of Salernitana or preparing for Sunday’s fixture against Juventus.
Knocking out Inter in the Coppa has a nice ring to it, but the boys only get a chance to do so, by putting together a comprehensive game plan against Spezia. Let’s go get it! As always, Forza Dea!
