Atalanta’s tremendous run finished in Turin following a 3-1 defeat to a Juventus outfit that was eager to bounce back from last week’s odd performance against Genoa.
Juventus came into this fixture suffering with several injuries in the squad’s back line and small confidence after losing out to an impressive Genoa team in last week’s encounter. For Atalanta, this match was vital to keep the impressive undefeated record intact and to gain further momentum to climb up the Serie A table.
It only took 15 minutes for the Bianconeri to open their scoring account and crack the Atalanta defence that has managed to keep four consecutive clean sheets. The goal came from a solo effort produced by defender Alex Sandro who took a brilliant individual run past the opposition defence line and shooting the ball into the low left corner beyond the reach of goalkeeper Marco Sportiello.
Sandro celebrated the goal by holding a shirt that had the words ‘Forca Chape’ to make a tribute to his fellow Brazilian’s that were involved in the Chapecoense air tragedy late last week.
Four minutes after the first goal, replacement defender Daniele Rugani doubled Juve’s lead making 2-0 after 19 minutes of play. Rugani scored the goal off a header from a precise Miralem Pjanic cross. The lead ensured the Turin giants would go into the interval with some breathing space.
The second half showed Bergamo club Atalanta creating some shots towards goal but nothing to threaten Gianluigi Buffon’s goal. The in-form Atalanta players Franck Kessié and Andrea Petagna couldn’t even manage to spark up the team’s performance as Juve’s defence consisting of Evra, Rugani, Chiellini, and Sandro were giving the two forwards a hard time in the final third.
In the 64th minute, Juventus extended their lead to 3-0 by a Mario Mandzukic header assisted once again from a Miralem Pjanic corner kick. It finally looked that the former Serie A champions cracked this tough Atalanta outfit that other teams over the weeks have struggled to do. There was a late consolation goal in the 82nd minute from Atalanta’s Remo Freuler who scored from an incoming cross. However, it didn’t change the complexity of the game towards the end as the Old Lady looked to be playing at their highest level.
This match was all about Juventus dominance and extending their lead on top of the Serie A table to seven points. Although teams like AC Milan, Roma, Lazio, and Torino still have a game in hand which means Juve’s seven-point lead will drop to four depending on the outcomes of the other fixtures including the Derby Della Capitale ‘Roma and Lazio derby’.
For Atalanta, this game is one they would like to erase out of their memories as they want to recover from this heavily one-sided defeat. The Nerazzurri will look to get back into winning form when they take on Friuli side Udinese in next week’s Serie A fixture.
This game showed that Atalanta is not quite up there to Juve’s performance standards just yet but don’t write this club off as they still can provide upsets when they play to the best of their ability on any given matchday.
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