A rampant Atalanta were too good for AC Milan, winning 5-0 at the Gewiss Stadium in Serie A on Sunday afternoon.
Papu Gomez started proceedings with an excellent individual effort, before a two minute double salvo in the second half from Mario Pasalic and Josip Ilicic ended the Rossoneri’s hopes.
Ilicic then made sure it was a very merry Christmas for the La Dea faithful as he heaped more misery on the away side with a spectacular curling strike, before Luis Muriel completed the rout.
As a result, Atalanta move up to fifth place in the Serie A table, with Milan in 10th, but could dip further down the standings should results later in the day go against them.
Atalanta were well on top in the early minutes with Milan struggling to get any time on the ball, and when they did Gasperini’s men were pressing well.
The opener came just 10 minutes in when Gomez collected the ball on the right, nutmegged Andrea Conti while driving into the penalty area, and smashed into the far corner.
Mario Pasalic had an effort which skimmed the crossbar, then Josip Ilicic had his shot from the edge of the area pushed away by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
After the break, Timothy Castagne got on the end of a Robin Gosens cross but sliced his close range volley well wide.
Ruslan Malinovskiy fired wide, and Pasalic did have the ball in the net again, deflecting a Gosens strike past Donnarumma just after the hour.
A third came two minutes later thanks to a classic counter attack as Pasalic broke from deep and he fed Ilciic who go the better of Davide Calabria and fired home.
The rout was complete with 19 minutes left as Ilicic picked up the ball on the right side then then curled the ball into the top corner.
It could and should have been five when another Atalanta counter saw Gosens get down the left and his cross found Castagne unmarked, six yards out, but Donnarumma got across to make a brave save.
Substitute Luis Muriel did get the fifth, latching onto a long ball and using his pace to round the goalkeeper and place into an empty net.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com