Atalanta stayed scorching on the heels of Serie A leaders Napoli on Monday by successful 2-0 at struggling Roma, who have been enjoying at residence for the primary time since Claudio Ranieri’s return as coach of his boyhood membership.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s facet are one level behind Napoli due to Marten De Roon’s wildly deflected strike within the 69th minute and former Roma attacker Nicolo Zaniolo’s late header which gave the Bergamo membership their eighth straight win in all competitions.
They’re additionally out on their very own in second place, three factors forward of champions Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio, after the proper begin to a troublesome mini-run of fixtures with AC Milan and Actual Madrid visiting within the coming days.
Atalanta, who made historical past by successful the Europa League final season, look extra convincing as Scudetto challengers with every passing week.
A historically small membership who’ve by no means been topped Italian champions, Atalanta are the division’s main scorers, have the highest goalscorer in Mateo Retegui and are on an eight-match successful run in Serie A.
“Nice stuff right this moment, it wasn’t straightforward, actually it was very tough and even,” goalscorer De Roon advised Sky.
“It is at all times nice to win right here however let’s hold our ft on the bottom, take every sport because it comes. However this run of wins provides us a variety of perception.”
Roma in the meantime are two factors above the relegation zone in fifteenth after a sixth defeat in seven league matches, and though Ranieri’s workforce have been well-drilled his gamers created little past early potshots from Leandro Paredes and Manu Kone.
– Atalanta ‘prepared’ –
Artem Dovbyk and Gianluca Mancini additionally didn’t get correct contact on good probabilities within the second half with the match nonetheless goalless.
“We went at it with them so long as we had the power to take action,” mentioned Ranieri.
“You must realise that (Atalanta) is a workforce which has every part in place to battle for the title. They’re prepared, actually prepared.”
Followers welcomed Ranieri again to the Stadio Olimpico with a sequence of chants and banners, and throughout the pre-match warm-up Roma’s gamers additionally wore T-shirts with the message “Forza Edo” for Edoardo Bove, who collapsed whereas enjoying for Fiorentina in opposition to Inter.
Bove, a Roma academy product on mortgage at Fiorentina from Roma since August, is aware at Florence’s Careggi hospital and present process checks to find out why he abruptly fell with 16 minutes gone of Sunday’s fixture, which was known as off and will likely be completed later within the season.
The 22-year-old was a part of the Roma workforce guided by Jose Mourinho which gained the inaugural Europa Convention League in 2022 and reached the next season’s Europa League last.
Inter and Fiorentina each have a sport in hand on Atalanta because of their match being stopped for Bove’s collapse.
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