Hellas Verona – Atalanta Bergamo: Atalanta’s Late Title Charge Is Stalled By Stubborn Hellas Verona (1-1)

Atalanta’s momentum is finally halted; Hellas Verona provided the solution to Serie A’s most troublesome side with a 3-4-2-1 shape to match their visitors. Atalanta were disrupted throughout the game and failed to build attacks consistently. On the other side, Verona made the most of their aerial advantage to spoil a truly renewed title race.
Tactical analysis and match report by Julian Chingoma.

Atalanta, the team standing out during the post-lockdown season, got the spotlight for this pivotal game. During midweek they had put six past Brescia and with a win here they could have moved within four points of the leading squad, Juventus. 

Gian Piero Gasperini went with the usual 3-4-2-1 formation. Duván Zapata led the line with Alejandro Gómez and Ruslan Malinovskyi in support of him. The central midfield pair consisted of Remo Freuler and Mario Pašalić. The wing-backs Hans Hateboer and Robin Gosens completed the midfield four. At the back were Rafael Tolói, José Palomino and Berat Djimsiti while Pierluigi Gollini continued in the goal.

Verona have been another team to garner plenty of praise during this season. Ivan Jurić’s side, in their first season back from the Serie B, were sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. Assistant manager Matteo Paro led the home side while Jurić served a touchline ban.

The 3-4-2-1 shape that Verona lined up matched that of Atalanta. Marco Silvestri was the man between the posts and he had Amir Rrahmani, Koray Günter, Alan Empereur in the back three in front of him. Davide Faraoni, Sofyan Amrabat, Miguel Veloso and Darko Lazović were the four in midfield. Matteo Pessina and Mattia . . .