One punt from a center back, one giant leap towards the scudetto. The 1-0 win hear for the Nerazzurri maintained their 6 point cushion at the top.Slovakian Milan Skriniar’s shot through a crowded box made all the difference. Atalanta were the better team offensively garnering 13 shots at goal and had the bigger slice of the possession pie(to be expected they are the side with the FOURTH highest average possession in Serie A). Kicking off the analysis with Atalanta defender Romero testing his own goalkeeper with a “back pass”. I put back pass in inverted commas because from my perch it was not. If Sportiello had handled it it would have been interesting to see how the ref would interpret the whole deal. Romero would argue that he was clearing the ball in hope that it might clear the crossbar and out of play. Anyway the keeper did well to head it away to avoid the trial and jury. Lukaku was is usual robust and handful self giving the Atalanta defense a torrid time. Zapata is a player I like from Atalanta. He has the same playing style of Didier Drogba the ex Ivory Coast Captain. Handanovic did well to prevent a certain goal from the Colombian’s head from a corner kick.
The Serie A league is a league which has a notorious reputation for producing quality defensive plays. Lukaku was thwarted by Romero’s superb tackle to illustrate my point. The Belgian had only the keeper to beat but Romero made a brave tackle, well slightly from behind so it was pretty risky,but he got to the ball. In truth Atalanta deserved at least a point from this encounter with the barrage of attempts at the Inter goal they had. Accuracy deserted them. They are still stuck in fifth a point behind Roma who occupy the last Champions League spot.
Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inter Milan | 26 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 63 | 25 | 38 | 62 | |
| 2 | AC Milan | 26 | 17 | 5 | 4 | 50 | 30 | 20 | 56 | |
| 3 | Juventus | 25 | 15 | 7 | 3 | 51 | 21 | 30 | 52 | |
| 4 | Roma | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 51 | 38 | 13 | 50 | |
| 5 | Atalanta | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 60 | 33 | 27 | 49 | |
| 6 | Napoli | 25 | 15 | 2 | 8 | 55 | 29 | 26 | 47 | |
| 7 | Lazio | 25 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 39 | 35 | 4 | 43 | |
| 8 | Verona | 26 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 34 | 29 | 5 | 38 | |
| 9 | Sassuolo | 25 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 40 | 39 | 1 | 36 | |
| 10 | Sampdoria | 26 | 9 | 5 | 12 | 36 | 39 | -3 | 32 | |
| 11 | Udinese | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 29 | 34 | -5 | 32 | |
| 12 | Bologna | 26 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 33 | 41 | -8 | 28 | |
| 13 | Genoa | 26 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 27 | 38 | -11 | 27 | |
| 14 | Fiorentina | 26 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 29 | 41 | -12 | 26 | |
| 15 | Spezia | 26 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 33 | 47 | -14 | 26 | |
| 16 | Benevento | 26 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 26 | 48 | -22 | 26 | |
| 17 | Cagliari | 26 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 29 | 43 | -14 | 22 | |
| 18 | Torino | 24 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 35 | 45 | -10 | 20 | |
| 19 | Parma | 26 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 23 | 52 | -29 | 16 | |
| 20 | Crotone | 26 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 28 | 64 | -36 | 15 |
