After claiming a narrow road win over Monza, Atalanta will be welcoming Empoli to the Gewiss Stadium, with the Tuscany side back on the road after defeating Napoli at home.
Are Empoli Hateboer’s favourite victims?
Now at its eighth season as a Nerazzurro upon landing in Bergamo in January 2017, Dutch wingback Hans Hateboer has netted in 12 goals with the black-and-blue shirt. While Hans’ first and last goals were scored against Hapoel Haifa in the UEFA Europa League qualifying game and against Spezia in the 2022/23 Coppa Italia RO16 respectively, Hateboer has bagged two nets against the Azzurri: starting off with the feature on the November 2018’s scoreboard at the Castellani stadium, he opened the scoring in last season’s 0-2 win -with the other scorer being Lookman. Are Empoli Hateboer’s favourite victims? Sure, but not the only one. Still etched in the memory of every Atalantino, Hans’ first and only brace played a pivotal role in the 4-1 win over Valencia in the UEFA Champions League RO16.
Who was the last Atalantino to have scored a brace against Empoli before Scamacca?
The reverse fixture played at the Computer Gross Arena had Gianluca Scamacca’s name written all over: after breaking the deadlock with a stunning backheel flick and serving Koopmeiners the assist, he sealed the game in the second half with an eye-watering finish. Gianluca is the last Atalamta player in order of appearance to score a brace against the Tuscany team after Josip Iličić, who left his double mark in the 1-4 win back in October 2021. Before Iličić, Simone Padoin found his double scoring ways against Empoli, oddly enough in another 4-1 win, on MD28 of the 2007/08 Serie A -while he netted the third and fourth of the game, Antonio Langella and Cristiano Doni were the further two names on the scoresheet. While being the best scorer of the game with 5 goals, Doni never netted a brace against the Azzurri.
Who scored his first Nerazzurro goal against the Tuscanians?
After landing in Bergamo in the summer of 2016, Rafael Toloi, Atalanta’s current skipper, has accrued 291 official caps for the Nerazzurri, embellished by 14 goals. Against the Azzurri skipper Rafael Toloi found his first goal for Atalanta scoring the decider in the midweek 0-1 road win dating back to September 2016 by nodding in Maxi Moralez’s corner-kick with a thunderous header.
