Nicolo Zaniolo made certain Atalanta will keep prime of Serie A this weekend with the one purpose in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Cagliari which secured a club-record tenth straight league win. Substitute Zaniolo determined a hard-fought encounter in Sardinia by stroking house Raoul Bellanova’s cut-back within the 66th minute. The victory moved Atalanta 5 factors clear in Serie A. Closest challengers Napoli can lower the hole again to 2 factors at Udinese afterward Saturday, whereas Juventus are 10 factors off the tempo forward of their house fixture with backside membership Venezia.
“We’re up there, however profitable 10 matches in a row does not actually imply something as there are groups this season who’ve received eight on the bounce,” stated coach Gian Piero Gasperini to DAZN.
Gasperini was not completely satisfied together with his gamers’ performances as, after impressing in Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat to Real Madrid, they struggled towards Cagliari who’re fifteenth and solely two factors above the relegation zone.
Atalanta, who additionally struck the submit by way of Ademola Lookman nearly straight after Zaniolo’s winner, solely got here away with all three factors due to an excellent efficiency between the sticks from Marco Carnesecchi.
Goalkeeper Carnesecchi pulled off three sensational stops within the six minutes earlier than the break and saved the win in stoppage time by preserving out Leonardo Pavoletti’s header.
“An excellent chunk of this crew, not everybody, must develop up a bit and get the identical mentality because the core group of the squad,” stated Gasperini. whose determination to make three substitutions at half-time was an indication of his dissatisfaction.
“Only then will we make these massive steps ahead.”
Zaniolo’s strike was his third of the season and an extra signal of recent life from the Italy worldwide after a troublesome previous couple of years.
The 25-year-old was as soon as the rising star of Italian soccer after coming to prominence at Roma, the place two severe knee accidents in 2020 stymied his improvement as a inventive playmaker.
He received the inaugural Europa Conference League with Roma in 2022 below Jose Mourinho, however fell out with the Portuguese coach and final yr was packed off to Galatasaray, from the place he was loaned to Atalanta in July.
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