Duvan Zapata played a central role as Atalanta completed a memorable comeback to defeat Napoli 2-1 at the Stadio San Paolo and keep their dreams of reaching next season’s Champions League alive.
With it, Gian Piero Gasperini’s Bergamaschi continued their incredible second half of this Serie A season, taking their points total for the second round of fixtures to 28 – second only to Juventus’ 31.
These two had had more shots than any others sides in Serie A before things got underway at the San Paolo but chances weren’t quite as plentiful as might have been expected.
Dries Mertens had a big chance to open the scoring after Andrea Masiello misjudged a bounce of the ball, allowing the Belgian to go one-on-one with Pierluigi Gollini. The Atalanta goalkeeper rushed out of his box and as Mertens looked to round him he went to ground, only to indicate himself that there was no contact for a foul, wasting a big chance.
Napoli did get their lead midway through the first half though and Kevin Malcuit played an important role as he got down the right. From the byline, he cut one back for Mertens, but it was Gianluca Mancini in the end who found the back of his own net.
Papu Gomez came to life just on half time and he stung the fingers of David Ospina in the half’s dying seconds, before then finding Mancini for a header that was straight at the Partenopei ‘keeper.
Arkadiusz Milik was a matter of millimetres from doubling the hosts’ lead early in the second half. The Pole dinked a delicate effort over Gollini and as his ball was just about to completely cross the line Masiello slid in and made an extraordinary recovery to dig it out of the goal.
Gomez then tried his luck from range again, this time trying to use the surface water to skid one past Ospina but, again, the Colombian was equal to it and Hans Hateboer dragged his follow up wide. Josip Ilicic came on for La Dea and had his own effort from range but his sliced his shot wayward.
Things opened up a little then. Mertens, Milik, Ilicic and Zapata were starting to find space at either end.
That space was taken advantage of by Zapata, as the Colombian levelled the scores with his 20th Serie A strike of the season.
Hateboer got down the right and rolled a ball into the six-yard box where Duvan was on-hand to expertly sweep the ball into the net.
Unsurprisingly, Ilicic and Zapata were involved as the Bergamaschi went ahead. The Slovenian charged forward and found his striker who looked to have passed up the chance as he went slightly wide, only to lay off a back-heeled pass to Mario Pasalic, leaving Ospina in no man’s land, and allowing the Croatian to tap into an open goal.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com