Atalanta eased past Sampdoria away after goals from Malinovskiy and Gosens
Atalanta picked up a comprehensive win against Sampdoria thanks to goals from Ruslan Malinovskiy and Robin Gosens.
The Bergamo outfit were coming on the back of a narrow defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League in which they were forced to play with ten men on the field after an early red card to Remo Freuler.
The visitors showed signs of struggles at first but were able to find the breakthrough right before half-time. with a brilliant strike from Ruslan Malinovskiy. The Ukrainian received the ball on Luis Muriel’s lay off and drove forward before unleashing a rocket from his left-foot.
Robin Gosens’ goal in the 70th minute put the game beyond the reach of Sampdoria as Atalanta grabbed home three points.
The win also helped Atalanta move ahead of Roma to the fourth place in the Serie A table and are tied on points with Juventus.
Gian Piero Gasperini, who cut a frustrated figure after the defeat against Madrid, was relieved to see his side bounce back with a comprehensive win.
Gosens, who was the scorer of Atalanta’s winning goal, shared his thoughts on the win and added that Atalanta can hope for a turnaround against Madrid in the second leg.
“We made some mistakes in the opening 20 minutes. Luckily we didn’t concede a goal, then we raised the rhythm and played better. We dominated the second half and deserved to win.
“We have hope. The result [of the first leg ] was not good, but we can go to Madrid with faith. The red card ruined the game, but we want to prove we are a strong team.”
