Atalanta becomes Dea again: manita at Empoli

Empoli-Atalanta 0-5

After the ugly surprise elimination with Club Brugge, Atalanta returned to winning ways in the league and did so in a clear-cut manner against Empoli, which is in its fourth knockout in a row. At Castellani, in fact, it ends 5-0 for the Nerazzurri who mortgage the challenge after only 45'thanks to a Gyasi author and goals by Lookman and Retegui. In the second half, the Nigerian signed his personal double, before Zappacosta dropped the manita.

Atalanta got off to a strong start: on 2’ Bellanova grazed the post on an assist from Lookman, on 4’ Zappacosta committed Silvestri in the dive, on 5’ Silvestri saved on Djimsiti. Empoli responded with Kouame on 15’ but his left footer found the gloves of Carnesecchi. At 27’ the Dea took the lead with a’ Gyasi’s own goal that deflected a Zappacosta cross into the goal, six minutes later it doubled with the usual Retegui who scored from two steps. In the final also comes the tris with Lookman who takes advantage of a kissing assist from Retegui, skips past Silvestri and deposits in the net.

The resumption begins with a double chance for Empoli again with Henderson but in both cases his shot ends just wide. At 55’ the orobici drop the poker with Lookman who finds the double with a nice left diagonal shot. With a quarter of an hour to go there’è glory also for Zappacosta who beats Silvestri with a low right-footed shot and seals the final 5-0.

Thanks to this thunderous success, Atalanta moves closer to Napoli (-2) and Inter (-3) in the standings, igniting the Scudetto fight. Third'last place, however, for Empoli, increasingly in crisis, stuck at 21 points.