Atalanta moved, temporarily at least, into fourth spot in Seie A with a 2-0 win over Sampdoria at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday afternoon.
Goals from Ruslan Malinovskyi and Robin Gosens in each half was enough for the Bergamo side to take all three points back to Lombardy.
Two quick Marco Sportiello stops in the opening ten minutes set out Sampdoria’s intentions early on, as they looked to get at their visitors.
Despite the absence of usual scorers in Keita Balde, Fabio Quagliarella, and Antonio Candreva in Claudio Ranieri’s XI, the hosts looked quite threatening, and it took a goal-line clearance from Jose Luis Palomino to keep it level in the 20th minute.
The rest of the half saw Atalanta play on the front foot, getting closer and closer to the goal. Almost getting a penalty as a deflected ball hit Maya Yoshida’s arm, though it hit his body beforehand, letting the Japanese defender off the hook.
La Dea eventually prevailed with a brilliant combination that saw Luis Muriel setting Malinovskyi up, the Ukranian’s impeccable first touch paved the way for his run towards Emil Audero, from where he thumped a typically powerful shot into the top corner.
Five minutes into the second half, a Joakim Maehle volley was cancelled out by VAR as provider Gosens was offside in the buildup
At the hour mark, Claudio Ranieri eventually introduced regular strikers Balde and Quagliarella for Valero Verre and Antonio La Gumina. While Matteo Pessina and Josip Ilicic came on for Mario Pasalic and Luis Muriel.
With 20 minutes left, in spite of the offensive additions for La Samp, Maehle returned the overruled favour to Gosens. A curled cross was sent from one wingback to the other as the German made a late run into in the box to double Atalanta’s lead.
Atalanta held on to climb above Lazio, after their loss at Bologna on Saturday, and the Nerazzurri temporarily sit ahead of Roma ahead of their game against AC Milan on Sunday evening.
