Atalanta got the better of Juventus in their highly-anticipated Serie A clash at the Gewiss Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Ruslan Malinovskyi broke Juventus hearts in the final few minutes when his deflected effort found its way into the corner of the net giving his team all three points. The result means Atalanta leapfrog Juventus into third place.
In a tight first half, Juventus came closest with efforts from Paulo Dybala and a great opportunity when Alvaro Morata capitalised on a mistake from the Atalanta defence but his delicate chip over the goalkeeper was cleared off the line by Berat Djimsiti.
Atalanta attempted a more adventurous approach in the second half but a firm Juventus defence limited them to a Luis Muriel curling effort from distance that whistled just over the crossbar. Josep Ilicic nearly made an immediate contribution crossing for Duvan Zapata who headed wide.
Juventus had to wait until the latter stages to look dangerous in the second half. Alvaro Morata was found in behind the defence and his volley was punched away by Pierluigi Gollini.
The match looked destined to be a draw until Atalanta’s pressure paid off. Ruslan Malinosvkyi hit a thunderous free-kick that was superbly saved by Wojciech Szczesny. from the resulting corner the ball found its way back with Malinovskyi who hit another shit that took a wicked deflection off Alex Sandro and into the corner of the net giving Atalanta the crucial lead.
The pressure keeps mounting on Juventus and Andrea Pirlo now risk being caught by Napoli if they beat Inter in the evening kick-off taking the battle for top four down to the wire.
