Bergamo, 18 December 2024 – For Atalanta every match becomes a final. Even if the opponent, still in the white jersey, is Cesena and not Real Madrid. Same concrete approach, even bad, same pressing, same competitive ferocity. And the same very warm environment with 20 thousand fans packed the Gewiss Stadium and to sing from the first to the last minute. Team and environment, together, as always.
As the single round of the round of 16 of the Italian Cup against the Romagna team it became a sort of training open to the public thanks to the Goddess, who did not underestimate the commitment in the slightest, entering the field with a starting line-up for eight elevenths – with only the new of Rui Patricio’s debut in goalwith Toloi in defense and the 19-year-old Palestra on the right – and with an attitude identical to that shown in the last evenings of high competitive tension against Milan and Real Madrid, with an inevitable tennis epiloguegiven the enormous difference between the two teams, a 6-1, which until one minute from the final whistle was a 6-0 for an Atalanta who could have scored another couple of goals without the clearances from goalkeeper Pisseri.
Show evening for Charles De Ketelaeretwo goals in 35 minutes and the play that started Zappacosta’s first goal, and for Lazar Samardzic he also scored a brace with an assist for the Belgian. The other goal, the one that made it 5-0 at the start of the second half, was by Brescianini assisted by Toloi. He didn’t score but Retegui moved a lot and well, author of the assist for the 2-0 and then involved in the action for the 4-0. And Zaniolo also placed an assist, the one that made it 6-0.
Lots of stuff even on an evening where the Dea could have saved themselves and slowed down after the 3-0, measuring his energy in view of Sunday’s home match against Empolibut at the moment the Nerazzurri team is doing well with all its players, even with the less used ones like Samardzic, Brescianini and Zaniolo and can afford the luxury of giving an evening in the stands at the new African Golden Ball Lookman, in Ederson, in Kolasinac as well as the suspended Cuadrado. A very long squad where they are all protagonists in turn, where the same as De Ketelaere shines as an increasingly leader of a Goddess that now has its sights set on the eleventh consecutive victory in the championship, to be sought on Sunday afternoon at the Gewiss against Empoli. In the quarterfinals the Nerazzurri will face Bologna.
