With a first-half goal from De Ketelaere and a strike from El Bilal in the second half, the Nerazzurri sealed a 2-1 away victory over Monza at the U-Power Stadium in Monza on matchday 33 of Serie A TIM 2023-2024.
The first chance of the game came in the eighth minute when Kolašinac cut in from the left but was denied by Di Gregorio, with Lookman firing the rebound over. A minute later, El Bilal’s header went just wide. The Nerazzurri had a penalty appeal in the 15th minute for a Bondo challenge on De Ketelaere and Lookman couldn’t get his shot on target. Carnesecchi was alert to Zerbin’s 36th-minute effort, while Colpani shot wide. After De Ketelaere had tested Di Gregorio with an angled shot on 41 minutes, Atalanta finally made the breakthrough in the 44th minute: Lookman’s corner found De Ketelaere, who nodded in to give the Nerazzurri the lead before half-time.
Lookman threatened six minutes into the second half when his solo effort struck the gloves of Di Gregorio. Monza tried to hit back on 55 minutes through Gagliardini, whose header flew inches over, and Pessina, whose 66th-minute effort skimmed the crossbar. The Nerazzurri doubled their lead in the 72nd minute when El Bilal and Lookman combined for the Malian striker to make it 2-0 and for the Nigerian to pick up his second assist of the night. Monza pulled one back in the 89th minute through Maldini’s curler.
MONZA 1-2 ATALANTA
Scorers: De Ketelaere 44 (A), El Bilal 72 (A), Maldini 89 (M).
Monza: Di Gregorio, Birindelli, Izzo (Caldirola 78), Pablo Marì, Kyriakopoulos (Maldini 65), Bondo, Gagliardini (D’Ambrosio 78), Pessina, Colpani (V. Carboni 54), Zerbin, Djuric (Colombo 78). Unused bench: Sorrentino, Gori, Donati, Pedro Pereira, A. Carboni, Ferraris, Vignato. Coach: Raffaele Palladino.
Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Toloi (Djimsiti 68), Hien, Kolašinac, Holm (Hateboer 28), Éderson (De Roon 68), Pašalić, Bakker (Ruggeri 46), De Ketelaere (Koopmeiners 64), Lookman, El Bilal. Unused bench: Musso, Rossi, Adopo, Bonfanti, Miranchuk, Zappacosta, Scamacca. Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini.
Referee: Antonio Giua from Olbia;
Assistant referees: Pietro Dei Giudici from Latina and Filippo Bercigli from Florence;
Fourth official: Luca Zufferli from Udine;
V.A.R.: Maurizio Mariani from Aprilia;
A.V.A.R.: Marco Serra from Turin.
Notes: Birindelli (M), Izzo (M), Hien (A) and Bondo (M) booked.
