BERGAMO \u2013 Atalanta got off to a good start, opening the season with a win in front of their home crowd. Sarri's team defeated Sassuolo after a hard-fought match, displaying strong play and finding the energy and right solutions in the second half to secure their first three points of the season. The match had started well with Raspadori's lightning-quick lead, but things got complicated in the second half when Sassuolo equalized. Sarri's substitutions worked in their favor, and with the introduction of Krstovi\u0107, Atalanta not only gained more depth but, more importantly, scored the decisive goal.<\/p>\n
Sarri has Scalvini back but is without Kristensen. De Ketelaere returns to the squad, having sat on the bench. Only two changes from the first leg of the Conference League playoffs, both on the right, with Zappacosta at fullback and Pasalic in midfield for Samardzic. Sassuolo will continue with their announced lineup, with Matic as the pivotal midfielder.<\/p>\n
Atalanta, in possession from the first minute, broke the deadlock in the sixth minute thanks to an assist from Gaetano for Raspadori, who, after feinting around Cinquegrano, fired a fiery left-footed shot that landed under the crossbar. Sarri's team continued to push forward, and in the 10th minute, Zalewski found himself in front of Muric, who read the trajectory of the shot and tapped it into the corner. Atalanta's play developed primarily down the right flank, and in the 18th minute, Pasalic failed to turn in a low ball from Zappacosta into the box. In the 25th minute, Zappacosta descended and fired a right-footed shot that grazed the crossbar. Sassuolo were more dominant in the second half of the first half. On the half-hour mark, Carnesecchi made his first intervention on a curling right-footed effort from Laurient\u00e9. Laurient\u00e9 then placed the ball into the box for Adzic shortly after, but the Nerazzurri goalkeeper blocked it. The Sassuolo winger tries again before half-time, but Carnesecchi covers well and blocks.<\/p>\n
The second half opened with a shot from Ederson, deflected for a corner by Muric. In the 10th minute, following a throw-in, Kossounou headed back, and Odenthal capitalized and headed home to tie the score. Sarri made three substitutions in the 15th minute, bringing on De Ketelaere, Krstovic, and Samardzic for Zalewski, Scamacca, and Pasalic. Aquilani responded by replacing Adzic with Thorstvedt. Despite Sassuolo appearing more aggressive, the Goddess didn't give up, and in the 20th minute, Krstovic, whom Sarri had described in the post-match Conference League press conference as "mad" when he came on, doubled the lead. In the 25th minute, Samardzic nearly made it three with a shot from outside the area that grazed the post with the keeper beaten. In the substitutions, Sarri brought on Kolasinac for Bernasconi, while Sassuolo substituted Matic and Macchioni, who carried a heavy burden following Krstovic's goal, for Leysen and Dominguez. Atalanta continued to threaten with Krstovic, who attempted a powerful right-footed shot that went just wide. In the 37th minute, Atalanta made their final substitution, with Elmas making his debut for Raspadori. Then, Krstovic once again attempted to double the lead, but Muric covered and parried the low shot. In the final ten minutes, Sassuolo continued to attack, but Atalanta defended their half admirably. The Nerazzurri left the pitch with three points and full of confidence ahead of the second leg of the Conference League playoffs in Hungary against Hapoel.<\/p>\n
In the post-match press conference, Sarri, with his first victory in Serie A as Atalanta coach, said he was satisfied with the three points, recognising that the team played very well in the first half hour, in which "he created without even suffering\u201d<\/i>, then suffering a decline and lowering itself, favoring the opponent's offensive pressure.\u00a0\u201cWe have become passive\u201d<\/i>\u00a0the coach declared.\u00a0\u201cIn the end it could have ended with a more rounded result<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 said Sarri \u2013.\u00a0It's also time to bring in the new players who have almost never trained with us. Let's enjoy these three points and focus on the next one."\u201d<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Going into detail, the coach acknowledged the excellent work done in the midfield in the first half of the match.\u201cThirty minutes of high-quality performances from all three midfielders. I'd also include Samardzic, because when he came on, he helped out."\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Maurizio Sarri highlighted this. He also gave a good assessment of the wingers, who he recognized as having more lively movement. The coach also commented on the Scamacca-Krstovic relay.\u00a0\u201c"They both played well tonight, and Krstovic will also be playing more. They both deserve to play."\u201d<\/i>\u00a0he declared. Positive judgment also for Mario Pasalic, who Sarri already knew from his time at Chelsea and points out as an example of\u00a0a group of professionals who have embraced the culture of work. <\/i>\u201c"They had the kind of coaches and club that carried this kind of conversation forward. It's a group that, in terms of professionalism, is absolutely commendable."\u201d<\/i> the coach concluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
ATALANTA-SASSUOLO 2-1<\/strong><\/p>\n ATALANTA (4-3-3):<\/strong> Carnesecchi 6.5 Zappacosta 6.5 Kossounou 6 Scalvini 6 Bernasconi 6 (25' st Kolasinac 6) Pasalic 6 (15' st Samardzic 6) Gaetano 6 Ederson 6.5 Zalewski 6 (15' st De Ketelaere 6) Scamacca 6 (15' st Krstovic 7) Raspadori 7 (37' st Elmas sv). Subs: Sportiello, Vismara, Sulemana, de Roon, Bellanova, Obric, Cassa. Coach: Sarri<\/p>\n SASSUOLO (4-2-3-1):\u00a0<\/strong>Muric 6 Cinquegrano 5 Odenthal 6.5 Macchioni 4.5 (29' st Leysen 6) Doig 6 Bakola 6 Matic 6 (29' st Dominguez 6) Adzic 6 (19' st Thorstvedt 6.5) Volpato 6 (43' st Ciervo sv) Bowie 5 (43' st Kulla sv) Laurient\u00e9 6.5. Subs: Turati, Missori, Ghion, Idzes, Di Bitonto, Nuamah, Obrador, Lipani, Iannoni, Pierini. Coach: Aquilani.<\/p>\n Referee: Crezzini 5.5 Assistants: Meli-Fontemurato. Fourth official: Pairetto. VAR: Giua AVAR: Maggioni<\/p>\n Scorers: st 6' Raspadori, st 10' Odenthal, st 20' Krstovic BERGAMO – Buona la prima per l\u2019Atalanta, che inaugura il campionato con una vittoria davanti al proprio pubblico. La squadra di Sarri supera il Sassuolo al termine di una gara combattuta, mettendo in mostra buone trame di gioco e trovando nella ripresa le energie e le soluzioni giuste per conquistare i primi tre punti della […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":122385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sb_editor_width":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2488,2487,387,727,2486,1467,1478,1911,2457,1474,1586,1473,1477,1703,1476,1299,1470,989,1564,1720,1479,1472,671,444,1471],"ppma_author":[813],"class_list":["post-122381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-calcio","tag-alberto-aquilani","tag-aquilani","tag-atalanta","tag-atalanta-bergamasca-calcio","tag-atalanta-sassuolo","tag-charles-de-ketelaere","tag-davide-zappacosta","tag-ederson","tag-eljif-elmas","tag-giacomo-raspadori","tag-gianluca-gaetano","tag-gianluca-scamacca","tag-giorgio-scalvini","tag-lazar-samardzic","tag-lorenzo-bernasconi","tag-marco-carnesecchi","tag-mario-pasalic","tag-maurizio-sarri","tag-new-balance-arena","tag-nicola-zalewski","tag-nikola-krstovic","tag-odilon-kossounou","tag-sarri","tag-sassuolo","tag-sead-kolasinac"],"relative_dates":{"created":"1 month ago","modified":"1 month ago"},"authors":[{"term_id":813,"user_id":13,"is_guest":0,"slug":"fedesorrentino","display_name":"Federica Sorrentino","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-30-alle-09.16.04.png","url2x":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-30-alle-09.16.04.png"},"first_name":"Federica","last_name":"Sorrentino","user_url":"","author_category":"0","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122389,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122381\/revisions\/122389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122381"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=122381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRecovery: 1, 5<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"