Atalanta brushed Cittadella aside with a 3-0 win on Saturday night at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia, to progress to the next round of the Coppa Italia.
Two quick-fire second half goals from Martin de Roon and Maxi Moralez and a late third from Mauricio Pinilla secured the tie.
The first half saw La Dea almost camped in the visitors’ half. In the opening ten minutes, Atalanta went close through Cristian Raimondi but his effort was cleared off the line by Filippo Lora.
Just before the hour mark, target man German Denis then had an effort thwarted by Enrico Alfonso. The Citta goalkeeper was then forced off with an injury and replaced by Matteo Vaccarecci.
The hosts were also forced into a change as Alejandro Gomez was taken off and on came Moralez. The Argentinian almost made an immediate impact but could not finish and the teams were level at the break.
It was more of the same in the second half, as Andrea Masiello let fly from the edge of the box but it was tipped wide by the keeper. From the resulting corner Vaccarecci was in action again to deny Carlos Carmona’s effort from the edge of the box.
The pressure did eventually tell just after the hour as the home side took the lead through Marten de Roon. Minutes later La Dea grabbed a second through first-half substitute Moralez as it looked certain who was going to progress to the next round.
They added a third in the last quarter of an hour as substitute Pinilla got on the scoresheet. It was nearly four soon after as Masiello missed the target from close range.
An easy test though for the Serie A side, as they progress to the fourth round of the Coppa Italia.
