Berat Djimsiti saved Atalanta on Thursday night with a three-minute brace that helped La Dea overturn the first leg of their Europa League playoff game against Olympiacos. Atalanta had the upper hand for most of the game but were punished by a Tiquinho Soares strike after just 16 minutes.
The Brazilian took advantage of some careless marking to put the ball past Juan Musso and set the Greek side off to a good start. Atalanta’s reaction was immediate though, and it took some good pieces of goalkeeping on the part of Tomas Vaclik to preserve Olympiacos’ lead until half time.
Before the brealk, La Dea had found the back of the net with Luis Muriel but saw their winning effort disallowed on grounds of offside.
Then, it was Djimsiti to steal the stage with a killer brace in the space of three minutes. First, he headed home from a corner to draw for the Bergamaschi; then, he resolved a chaotic action in the Greek area with a fine right-foot strike in the middle of the box.
Atalanta found an unexpected hero in their Albanian defender, but will need to pay more attention next week in Athens if they want to continue their European adventure.