Atalanta squeezed past a spirited Salernitana side at Stadio Arechi on Saturday night, courtesy of Duvan Zapata’s 75th-minute strike. Gian Piero Gasperini has admitted in the aftermath that his side’s victory was not pretty by any means, as it took them plenty of suffering to get there.
Seeking their first Serie A win in the 21st century, newly-promoted Salernitana put in the utmost effort against last season’s most prolific Italian club, but to no avail. In an exhausting, physical encounter that produced more yellow cards than clear-cut chances, Fabrizio Castori’s men wasted several decent opportunities to upset Atalanta.
Unfortunately, Joel Obi’s miss from point-blank range and Juan Musso’s top-class save to deny Cedric Gondo early in the second half eventually came back to haunt Salernitana. It’s fair to say that Atalanta performed well below their standards, as has been the case in all three previous Serie A fixtures this season.
After seeing his side shooting blanks in the first half, Gasperini showed he means business already at half-time by making a triple change. An atypical move suggested the gaffer was far from happy with his side’s first-half performance against one of the weakest teams in the division.
But one substitution, in particular, paid dividends. Josip Ilicic, who replaced toothless Aleksey Miranchuk at the break, exchanged consecutive one-twos with Zapata before setting up the Colombian for Atalanta’s winner. The Slovenian brought his side’s game back to life, as did Davide Zappacosta, who joined the fray midway through the second half at the expense of Ruslan Malinovsky.
However, Zapapcosta has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Italian full-back was a bright spark, but his epic miss in the 85th minute overshadowed his sparkling exploits. He can at least find some comfort in knowing his massive waste didn’t come back to haunt his team.
While Atalanta halted a two-game winless Serie A streak to move up to seventh, Salernitana are nailed to the bottom of the standings without a single point from four matches. Gasperini knows his side failed to impress in terms of entertainment and flair but insists his players did what was needed to eke out the all-important three points.
“We met a team with great energy, an atmosphere that made them fired up and it was a difficult match,” the Italian manager said, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
“That is football! It is not always easy to explain. Salernitana started strong, they were coming off three defeats, so felt the adrenaline more than we did, but as soon as they lowered the intensity, we took control.
“It is a result that penalizes Salernitana, we won’t lie, but this is football.
“I’ve won a few games playing ‘ugly’ and lost a lot more playing well. It’s more difficult every year to repeat ourselves, to keep raising the bar, especially when there’s a lot more attention on us now. Once again, the mind controls everything and we need to work on that more than anything else.“