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·30 March 2024

Serie A | Napoli 0-3 Atalanta: Dominant Dea at the Maradona

Atalanta got back on track with a dominant 3-0 away victory thanks to Aleksei Miranchuk, Gianluca Scamacca and Teun Koopmeiners goals, but Napoli hit the upright twice.

Both teams had problems after players returned from international duty with injuries, as Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Charles De Ketelaere missed out, with Teun Koopmeiners not passed fit to stat, but Victor Osimhen shook off a knock in this clash for European places.

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La Dea were coming off two points from four Serie A games, but their last round was postponed after Fiorentina director Joe Barone’s heart attack.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

It took just two minutes for Atalanta to go very close to an opening goal, as Aleksei Miranchuk ran on to a Mario Pasalic slide-rule pass and his snooker shot beat Alex Meret only to bounce off the base of the far post.

Osimhen’s diving header didn’t have enough power to surprise Marco Carnesecchi, but Atalanta took the lead in rather chaotic fashion.

Davide Zappacosta’s cross from the left was nodded on by both Hans Hateboer and Gianluca Scamacca, then Pasalic’s scuffed volley turned into an assist for Miranchuk to tap in from close range. The hosts wanted it disallowed for a push, but Amir Rrahmani was not strong enough.

Napoli had a double opportunity to equalise soon after, as Osimhen sprung the offside trap and Carnesecchi came flying out to parry with his legs, then Giorgio Scalvini cleared the Matteo Politano follow-up practically off the line.

Moments later, Meret had to do even better with a double rush off his line to push the ball off the feet of first Pasalic, then Sead Kolasinac.

Atalanta doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Scamacca’s high press on Juan Jesus proved effective, he combined with Miranchuk to fire into the far bottom corner from outside the box.

There was an extraordinary double opportunity for Napoli on 54 minutes, as first the ferocious Piotr Zielinski left-foot volley smashed the inside of the far post, then it came back to Stanislav Lobotka, whose finish was deflected off Osimhen as Carnesecchi scrambled across to fingertip it onto the other upright.

Giorgio Scalvini injured himself while making a decisive tackle to stop Jesper Lindstrom going clear on goal from Osimhen’s flick.

Meret had to use his trailing hand to palm away the Miranchuk effort from the edge of the box, then did the same on Ademola Lookman.

Carnesecchi also had to be alert with two tough saves on Osimhen, one using his foot, the other on a scorching half-volley.

Just as Napoli were pushing the hardest, Atalanta added a third on the counter-attack. Substitute Koopmeiners completed a give and go with Matteo Ruggeri and held off Juan Jesus to place his precise snooker-shot of a finish into the far bottom corner.

This practically ends any residual hopes Napoli had of and they were loudly jeered off the field at the final whistle.