Atalanta earned their first victory under coach Maurizio Sarri by beating Sassuolo 2-1 with Giacomo Raspadori and Nikola Krstovic goals.
La Dea were a little anxious after the disappointing 0-0 first leg draw with Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the Conference League play-off, confirming difficulty in adapting to Sarri’s tactics. Thomas Kristensen suffered an injury in that game too, joining Isak Hien, Honest Ahanor and Kamaldeen Sulemana on the treatment table.
Alberto Aquilani’s Sassuolo missed Domenico Berardi, Andrea Pinamonti, Sebastian Walukiewicz, Daniel Boloca, Edoardo Pieragnolo, Fali Cande and Ismael Kone after a 3-0 Coppa Italia victory over Cesena.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It took just six minutes to break the deadlock, as Simone Cinquegrano failed to clear effectively, so Gianluca Gaetano sent Giacomo Raspadori through for a rocket of a finish off the underside of the crossbar against his hometown club.
Kieron Bowie fired over from close range on a Josh Doig pull-back, and Nicola Zalewski forced a fingertip save from Arijanet Muric at the near post.
Davide Zappacosta’s rising strike clipped the top of the bar on the counter-attack, while Armand Laurienté saw a screamer palmed out from under the crossbar, then Marco Carnesecchi was alert on the Vasilije Adzic dinked finish.
Cristian Volpato also stung Carnesecchi’s gloves at the near post, then after the restart Cinquegrano prevented Raspadori tapping in the Zappacosta pull-back from six yards.
Muric got down to push the Ederson daisy-cutter round the upright, but Sassuolo got their equaliser. Josh Doig’s long throw-in was flicked on by Odilon Kossounou, turning into an accidental assist for Cas Odenthal to nod in from close range.
Atalanta restored their advantage, as Macchioni flicked on the long Carnesecchi goal kick and it fell kindly for Nikola Krstovic, who pounced on the loose ball to drill home.
Lazar Samardzic’s curler flashed just wide, as did the Krstovic attempt, while Eljif Elmas made his Atalanta debut in the final stages.
Cinquegrano threatened a spectacular equaliser in stoppages, but his scissor-kick volley flashed wide of the back stick.
Atalanta 2-1 Sassuolo
Raspadori 6 (A), Odenthal 55 (S), Krstovic 65 (A)
Player statistic
| Giacomo Raspadori (Assist: Gianluca Gaetano) |
6' |
| 55' | Cas Odenthal | |||
| Nikola Krstovic |  |
65' |
