Roma striker Tammy Abraham has heaped praise on his teammates following a stunning 4-1 win at Atalanta. The Giallorossi shocked La Dea at the Gewiss Stadium in Saturday’s most exciting Serie A match-up to come to within touching distance of the top-four spots.
Despite easing past a 10-man Spezia 2-0 last time out, Roma went to Bergamo as underdogs amid an underwhelming run of form. However, Jose Mourinho’s side defied the odds to reduce the gap on fourth-placed Napoli to five points.
It’s been Roma’s first league victory over Atalanta after seven failed attempts, as the visitors put on an impressive counter-attacking football on full display. Abraham stunned the Gewiss Stadium inside the opening 60 seconds to fire his team to an early lead before Nicolo Zaniolo got off the mark in the 27th minute.
The Italian whizz-kid, who has recently returned from injury, netted his first Serie A goal of the season to double Roma’s advantage. But Bryan Cristante’s unfortunate own goal on the stroke of half-time gave Atalanta everything to play for in the second half.
Roma went in retreat, trying to hold onto a slender lead and hurt their opposition on the break. And after VAR disallowed Duvan Zapata’s equalizer for an offside, the Giallorossi restored a two-goal cushion through Chris Smalling. The English centre-back has now scored in back-to-back Serie A appearances after finding the net against Spezia last time out.
Abraham completed his brace in the 82nd minute to kill the game off and secure Roma’s second Serie A win in a row. During the post-match interview, the ex-Chelsea star waxed lyrical about his side’s all-important win against one of the best teams in the league.
“What a win! What. A. Win. I don’t know what else to say,” Abraham told DAZN, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB. “A lot of people doubted us, said it was Mission Impossible for our team, but this is by far one of the best wins we’ve had this season. You can see this by the reaction of the traveling fans and everyone. What a win!
“It was emotions, we are both passionate about the game, knew today was important for us and the fans. We didn’t even speak, it was just a hug and you could see what it meant to both of us.“