Atalanta are eager to follow up on the great Coppa Italia Frecciarossa win at the Meazza stadium: the first return match of the season will see the Nerazzurri host Frosinone, one of the dark horses of the current season, at the Gewiss Stadium. in the 1st-leg the Ciociarian team came out on top.
Atalanta and Frosinone face off on MD20 for the first time.
Monday’s home clash with Frosinone will kick off the second half of the Serie A season and, interestingly, it is not the first time this has happened. The precedent dates back to Frosinone’s last season in Serie A before the current one, in 2018/19. On that occasion, however, it was played at the Benito Stirpe and it was the maiden match of 2019. Atalanta arrived at the Benito Stirpe with the best attack in the league, while the Ciociari were fighting to avoid relegation. In the first half, it was Gianluca Mancini who opened the scoring, while Zapata doubled the score before half-time and didn’t stop there: in the second half, Duván scored three more goals to make it 5-0.
How many appearances did Okoli make as a Nerazzurro?
Caleb Okoli joined Atalanta as a youngster in the summer of 2016 after coming through the Vicenza youth academy. Caleb immediately stood out in the Atalanta youth system, winning the Primavera title in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons. At that point, it was time to make the leap to professional football: two successful loan spells, the first at SPAL and the second at Cremonese, with whom he was promoted to Serie A. He returned to Atalanta for the 2022/23 season, making his debut, as a starter, against Sampdoria on 13 August. By the end of the season, he had made 17 appearances for Atalanta, all in Serie A. The centre-back is now on loan at Frosinone, where he has already made 17 appearances between the league and the Coppa Italia.
Who did NOT make his Serie A debut for Atalanta against Frosinone?
Matteo Pessina signed for Atalanta in the summer of 2018: his Nerazzurri debut came in the Europa League preliminary round against Sarajevo, gaining consistent playing time in the following matches. By the time the match against Frosinone came around, Matteo had already made five appearances for Atalanta, but none in the league, as the match against Ciociari was the curtain-raiser of the 2018/19 Serie A season. The same goes for Duván Zapata, who also made his debut in the Europa League against Sarajevo and came on for his league debut against Frosinone. Timothy Castagne, on the other hand, had already joined the Nerazzurri the previous season: his debut came on 10 September 2017 in a 2-1 win over Sassuolo, with goals from Cornelius and Petagna.
