Ivan Juric is disappointed: “The first half could have ended 3-0 or 4-0.”
“The first half could have ended 3–0 or 4–0, and there wouldn’t have been much to say.” At the end of the Monza-Atalanta match, Monza coach Ivan Juric made no secret of his disappointment over the loss suffered at the Stadio Brianteo against his former team. “We conceded a goal on our first lapse in concentration,” added the Croatian. “I’m proud of the last twenty minutes of the game, because we fought back incredibly hard and came very close to tying it up. We’ll try to work even harder so we don’t slip up.”
“We’re under a lot of stress; some referees make me lose my temper—when they confront me, I don’t take it well. I didn’t like the fourth official’s attitude; he was aggressive. But the red card was justified,” Juric continued.
In the final moments of the match, everything happened: in stoppage time, there was contact between Rowe and Colpani, which referee Allegretta decided not to penalize amid protests from the Brianza side. Juric received his first yellow card and, one minute later, was shown a red card due to tensions with the opposing bench following a rough tackle by Colpani on Rowe.
The match, part of the 11th round of Serie A, was decided by Krstovic’s goal in the 50th minute: the Nerazzurri forward pounced on a loose ball in the Biancorossi’s box after a mistake by Törnqvist. For Sarri’s Atalanta, this is a breath of fresh air: the Bergamo-based team returns to winning ways after a month and climbs to 14 points, also securing its first road win of the season.
For Monza, however, this marks their fourth consecutive loss, following defeats to Torino, Napoli, and Bologna. The Brianza-based side remains third from last with just seven points from eleven matches, and Juric’s position is now under scrutiny. Furthermore, leading up to the match, the statistics pointed to an unprecedented performance for the club in Serie A: after eleven matchdays, Monza had never before suffered eight league losses.
The win at the Brianteo comes at a delicate moment for Sarri as well, who has found himself at the center of discussions in recent days following the home loss to Parma and the draw against Kairat in the Conference League. The club had chosen to stand united behind the coach, postponing any evaluation of his position until the international break, when the results of the matches against Kairat and Monza will be analyzed. Today’s victory, against former coach Juric, has, for the time being, quelled rumors of a possible coaching change.
