Wlodarczyk’s penalty ten minutes from the end at the hands of Kolasinac freezes the Dea who had turned the game around with a brace from Muriel
Atalanta throws away the opportunity to close the qualifying practice and on the Sturm Graz pitch they miss the third victory out of three in the Europa League, allowing themselves to reach 2-2 ten minutes from the end of a match up until then in control, with eleven men against ten and after the turnaround signed by Luis Muriel’s brace. The Colombian, who hadn’t scored two goals for a year and a half and had scored three in the whole of last season, returns to scoring after six months, since the last championship match against Monza in June. It seemed like the decisive exploit for the coup in Austria, then Kolasinac’s handball and the late penalty converted by Wlodarczyk made Sturm go against Gasperini. Punishing a match in which it took a while for the Goddess to start playing against Atalanta, only after being hit, and then thinking that playing on the tips was enough to mark a technical gap that was there, and which has increased when the Austrians were left with ten men at the start of the second half. However, they ended up drawing.
UNDER
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The evening had started on an uphill climb for the Dea, pierced in the 13th minute by a shot by Prass from the left, in the area, deflected unluckily by Toloi’s decisive touch that betrays Musso. Gasp also risks the 2-0, saved by Musso’s dive midway through the first half on a header from Stankovic above Djimsiti and then a couple of minutes later on a left-footed shot from Grass again. The Bergamo players turn the ball over too slowly, so Sturm Graz’s pressing ends up finding it too easy to attack in spaces. The first blasts come from Zappacosta who reaches the end on the left and from Lookman as a right-wing attacker. A volley from the Nigerian in the 28th minute, destined to have gone in if he hadn’t found the rebound from the attacking midfielder Kiteishvili, announced a draw which arrived shortly after.
THE TURNOVER
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It’s the 34th minute: Muriel receives at 30 metres, attacks vertically towards the goal, dribbling Wuthrich’s intervention and from the edge unleashes a precise right-footed shot which goes into the corner and makes it 1-1. Apart from a scare in the 40th minute due to a header from midfield (!) by Kiteishvili following a clearance by Musso outside the posts which ends up just wide, these are the names of the Bergamo turnaround: in full stoppage time in the first half in the 48th minute a Zappacosta’s shot finds Stankovic’s recall arm very wide, which the Croatian referee Strukan after the video review can only sanction with a penalty, and from the spot Muriel classy displaces Scherpen with all the calm in the world, placing the ball on the left while he goes right.
THE HOOK
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Already put on the right track, the match seems to be definitively channeled in the direction of Dea when seven minutes into the second half the referee hands Hierlander a second yellow card, already booked for stopping a not particularly dangerous restart by Ruggeri on the left. From then on, however, against Sturm Graz with ten men, Atalanta ends up playing around, the arrivals of Hateboer, De Ketalaere and Scamacca take away their incisiveness if possible and the Azzurri attacker himself has at least two very clear goal opportunities between his feet, one from a free kick and one on a service from the left by Ederson, yet he wastes them. Thus comes the insult: in the 78th minute, following a play by Horvat on the right, Kolasinac is found with an arm almost as wide as Stankovic in the first half and it is a penalty. Wlodarczyk displaces Musso from the penalty spot and the closing credits roll: Atalanta remains in the lead and closes the first leg on 7 points with two successes and this draw, everything remains in his control at the dawn of a return with the next two matches in home, but the taste of the missed opportunity remains. To be redeemed in the postponement on Monday in Empoli.
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