STADIO RENATO DALL’ARA (Bologna) – Bologna took advantage of a depleted and groggy Atalanta side on Sunday afternoon to claim their first win over the Bergamaschi in eight games.
Suffering after their midweek Champions League progression and subsequent, La Dea were some way shy of their best at the Dall’Ara despite having enough chances in the first half to have built up a comfortable lead.
Gian Piero Gasperini made changes in the second half, Bologna went down to ten men for stoppage time and while the visitors did attempt to mount a comeback, but the gap was too much for even Italy’s best comeback makers to recover.
A groggy Atalanta fell to a 2-1 defeat at Bologna and @ConJClancy is there for #FIFattheGames.
Report ? https://t.co/nQx4UxRSTk#BolognaAtalanta #SerieA pic.twitter.com/yUwgkbAaVn
— ForzaItalianFootball (@SerieAFFC) December 15, 2019
It was a frantic start and Atalanta had three big chances to lead in the opening ten minutes. Ruslan Malinovskyi was first, then Mario Pasalic and Luis Muriel passed up their own chances.
Riccardo Orsolini was the driving force behind the opener though. With a point to prove to former coach Gian Piero Gasperini who often overlooked him in his brief spell in Bergamo, he drove in from the right and thumped a shot off the upright from the edge of the box. Rodrigo Palacio arrived just in time to tap the rebound into Pierluigi Gollini’s unguarded goal.
Palacio attempted a curling effort for his second but was wide of the top corner before Pasalic missed an incredible chance to restore parity. A cross from the left landed on his foot beneath Lukasz Skorupski’s crossbar but he somehow blazed his volley over.
Gollini was forced into a great save low to his left to keep out another Palacio curler just before the break and Nicola Sansone sent a freekick over.
Andrea Poli got a second for the hosts before the hour mark. Atlanta’s backline continued to create their own troubles and when Takehiro Tamiyasu’s delivery came into the box Poli climbed highest to dispatch an excellent glancing header out of Gollini’s reach.
Malinovskyi pulled one back shortly after though. Atalanta built a move from the back and within two passes Musa Barrow, who had just come on, was presented with a gaping hole in the Bologna backline. The forward slotted the Ukrainian in and he put through Skorupski’s legs.
Barrow then went through himself and after lobbing Skorupski his effort was cleared off the line by Danilo Larangeira, who just made it back to cover in time.
Another big chance fell the youngster’s way as Malinovskyi had a long-range strike parried into his path but, with the goal in front of him, he rushed his effort and it went harmlessly over.
Malinovskyi troubled again with a fizzing freekick from wide. Skorupski parried once more and again Barrow was only able to put his rebound over.
Danilo received his marching orders after two yellow cards in quick succession and from the second foul Berat Djimsiti came within inches of a leveller as he headed just wide.
