STADIO PAOLO MAZZA (FERRARA) – Nobody starts a Serie A season worse than Atalanta and the Bergamaschi were on track to make it 28 opening day defeats at the Stadio Paolo Mazza on Sunday until a Luis Muriel-inspired comeback helped them reverse a 2-0 deficit to leave Ferrara with a 3-2 win and all three points.
Up against six of their former players, the Bergamaschi were suffering another nightmare at the hands of their exes, having fallen to an Andrea Petagna brace in this same fixture last season.
A chaotic evening in Ferrara has ended with Muriel magic completing an Atalanta turnaround at SPAL to end their exes' curse.
They came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and @ConJClancy was there for #FIFattheGames.
Report ? https://t.co/KqC0eSSZfq#SpalAtalanta pic.twitter.com/wrE284fZvb
— ForzaItalianFootball (@SerieAFFC) August 25, 2019
Those terrors looked to be repeating themselves with the season barely six minutes old as debutant Federico Di Francesco opened his SPAL account in front of the Curva Ovest. The visitors had controlled the opening minutes but a quick counterattack allowed the forward to use his pace and find space before slotting beyond local boy Pierluigi Gollini.
Atalanta then maintained their dominance but never made it count. A series of corners came their way for the following 15 minutes or so but none really prompted any work from Etrit Berisha.
It was no surprise that when they finally carved out a chance it came via the feet of Alejandro Papu Gomez. The No.10 twisted, turned, exchanged a one-two with Remo Freuler before getting beyond the defence and having his effort saved by his former teammate.
Almost as punishment, Papu’s close friend and ex-attacking partner Andrea Petagna doubled SPAL’s lead within moments. The Paolo Mazza’s new favourite Igor Dos Santos drove at La Dea’s defence and after a countless number of stepovers he drove a low centred cross that the forward tapped in.
Then came an onslaught at the other end that did deliver a goal. Berisha pulled off an outstanding stop to deny an own goal, but the subsequent cross was met by Robin Gosens who rocketed a header that the Albanian could do little about.
Another save followed from Berisha on Gomez before Gollini was forced into a top stop of his own to keep the gap at one goal. Atalanta may have been regretting the decision to sell the SPAL ‘keeper when he denied Duvan Zapata, who followed his first saved header with another that hit the crossbar seconds later. There was time for another save as well, with Freuler taking his turn to be frustrated.
Gian Piero Gasperini gambled not long into the second half by introducing Ruslan Malinovskyi and Luis Muriel for Andrea Masiell and Remo Freuler, opting to play with two defenders.
Then Igor sparked danger again with another direct run forward before driving a powerful shot just wide of the top corner.
Muriel then got his own debut goal, announcing himself to the Atalanta fans in style. Picking the ball up some way from goal, the Colombian took a few strides forward before dispatching an excellent and powerful strike into the bottom corner.
Mario Pasalic should have completed the turnaround as he found himself one-on-one with Berisha but the Albanian stayed up for long enough to deny the Croatian.
But Atalanta didn’t have to wait long and Muriel made his debut all the more memorable as he bagged another. Again from outside the box and again aiming for the bottom-left corner, he shaped up to shoot right but tucked one nicely out of Berisha’s reach.
