Other than anti-Juve! Roma melts like snow in the sun in the presence of a splendid Atalanta, capable of obtaining the fifth consecutive victory (the seventh in the last 8 games) and thus moving to fifth place in the standings, in the middle of the Europe area and even ahead of Naples.
The Giallorossi, on the other hand, have to deal with a very heavy knockout, as well as yet another exam as a great failure: Spalletti's team remains one of the best in the league, God forbid, the Scudetto argument however doesn't make any sense, not now at least.
“For us it is a big step backwards – confirmed the coach. – Unfortunately, when the level of the fight rises we become less good, we let our guard down whenever the match moves to a more physical level. Then in the second half we really stopped playing, Atalanta instead took the lead and deservedly overturned the result”.
In fact, it was a two-faced Roma: more than good in the first half, not surprisingly they ended up one goal ahead and with at least two wasted chances to double, bad in the second, when the hosts literally take over the field. In light of this, even a draw would have been close to Gasperini's team, at this point a real revelation of the championship.
“Are we the anti-Juve? Nice joke… – joked the Nerazzurri coach. – We don't set ourselves limits, we just want to continue facing everyone without fear and see where we can go. Of course, winning after such a performance is a source of great pride”.
And to say that the match seemed to be going pretty well for Roma. Taking the field under the pressure to win, Spalletti's team faced the first half with good tactical sense and compactness, so much so as to bring out the clear superiority of their technical rate.
In the 39th minute Toloi blocked Salah's shot with his arm, Rocchi pointed to the penalty spot and Perotti signed the 1-0 which seemed to be able to give Spalletti a Sunday full of satisfactions. In the second half, however, Atalanta, pardoned by Salah at the end of the first half, returned to the field with grit and determination, everything that instead disappeared from the yellow and red legs.
In the 62nd minute Caldara equalized with a somewhat lucky carambola, shortly after Freuler almost overtaken with a shot that hit the post but the Nerazzurri lust was only postponed. Indeed, in the 90th minute Paredes spread Gomez in the area and this time it was Atalanta who were able to take advantage of a penalty: Kessié, one of Gasperini's many baby prodigies, displaced Szczseny thus giving him another dream week.
For Spalletti, on the other hand, it is another step backwards, perhaps second only to that of August against Porto. That evening the possibility of playing in the Champions League was extinguished, yesterday, barring sensational twists, it was instead the Scudetto ambitions that returned to the closet.
