With the Champions League bounty already secured and with two back-to-back home Serie A games up for grabs, Atalanta will keep pushing to close the league “on a high C”: first challenger Torino, back to roaming ways after their win over AC Milan.
Who was last season’s hat-trick hero?
September 1 2022: after the fondest reuninon between Josip Iličić and the Atalanta fans, the ball rolled at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo. Off to a fledgling start, Atalanta stung Milinkovic-Savic’s gloves twice, first with a Koopmeiners’ trademark torpedo and then with Zapata, who had his mano-a-mano negated by the Serbian goalie. With Demiral also smacking the post for good measure, fourth time was the charm for Atalanta: as Ola Aina tackled Soppy into the box well into injury time, a sub-zero “Kool”meiners nullified the Maroon keeper from the spot. After closing the first half on top, the Nerazzurri still upped the ante in the second half: just two minutes after the restart, Koopmeiners struck once again when his shot got deflected into the net. After Toloi threatend to make it 3, Torino had his second win, hitting the crossbar with Linetty before the away side pulled one back with Vlasić. The visitors hopes were short lived as Koopmeiners burst the Maroon bubble once again: after Lookman got knocked down once again, TK7 took the spot(light) once again and bagged his first-ever hattrick for Atalanta.
When did Torino last win in Bergamo?
While the last seven games with Atalanta as “innkeepers” saw Torino impose themselves just once -with the Nerazzurri claiming three wins and the rest being as many honours even- the Maroons’ last win didn’t actually take place in Bergamo: with the Curva Nord under renovation, the 2019/20 matchup was hosted at the Tardini stadium in Parma. Henceforth, technically speaking, Torino’s actual last victory “under the shade of the Orobic mountains” is the 0-1 win dating back to November 22 2015 courtesy of Bovo.
To whet your appetite in the lead-in to MD38, check the highlights of one of the most riveting Gewiss Stadium draws between the two sides: namely, the 4-4 tie dating back to the 2021/22 season.
How many years ago did we last play on the road for MD38?
For the sixth consecutive season, MD38 will have once again Atalanta see the season off at home. Working backwards, before last season’s 5-2 win over Monza, we hosted Empoli in the 2021/22 campaign. Even before came the two “farewells to Serie A” with both sides of Milan: namely. AC Milan in 2021 and Inter in 2020. While the 2018/2019 Serie A MD38 was played at the Mapei stadium against Sassuolo, Atalanta were the de facto hosts in the night that punched the Nerazzurri’s first-ever Champions League ticket. Hence, the last time Atalanta truly closed the league on the road happened in the 2017/18 campaign: with the Nerazzurri hosts to Cagliari, the Rossoblù imposed themselves 1-0 that day.
