Atalanta’s 2023 closed on a high c: as the Nerazzurri imposed themselves 1-‘0 over Lecce at the Gewiss Stadium, Gasperini’s men clinched their third back-to-back home win. Teun Koopmeiners accrued his 100th appearance in all competitions, with the make-up subdivided as follows: 80 Serie A matches, 11 UEFA Europa League caps, 5 UEFA Champions League appearances and 4 Coppa Italia tokens, embellished by 17 goals and 12 assists. In his 100 Atalanta appearances, the Dutch mid created 175 goal chances, shot 142 times, delivered 4517 passes (with an 81% success rate) retrieved 555 balls, performed 138 tackles, took part in 814 duels and 49 interceptions (source Stats Perform).
Ademola Lookman broke the deadlock and decided the Lecce game with his 7th league goal so far: for the fourth time after Cagliari, Genoa and Milan (all of them being at the Gewiss Stadium), it was Mola who busted the stalemate. As Stats Perform’s Opta Facts pointed out, no other Serie A player can flaunt better domestic scoring numbers: with 8 goals favoured, Mola is tied with Dybala. Additionally, since the beginning of the previous season, only two African players – namely, Salah with 50 and Osimhen with 39 – have registered a better offensive tally than Lookman (29) in the Top-5 European Leagues.
Worst of luck for Gianluca Scamacca and Mario Pašalić who hit the woodwork on two separate occasions: while the former smashed the post, the latter won an impromptu “crossbar challenge”. With 10 times so far, no other team has hit the three sticks more than Atalanta: furthermore, the Nerazzurri hit the woodwork at least twice during the same match on three separate occasions – a record also in this unfortunate regard, shared with Roma and Frosinone.
Closing off with the follow-up provided by the Serie A’s Official Match Report: Koopmeiners and Lookman were the game’s benchmarks for successful passes on the offensive third (15 each and one clear of Marten de Roon); our skipper held instead the baton in terms of successful touches (89) and passes (71). While Lookman was also the most creative player in terms of goal chances (5), key passes (5) and shots on target (2); Scamacca was the player with the highest number of shots (4, on par with Krstovic).
