TIME MACHINE: ATALANTA v AC MILAN

Atalanta v AC Milan is now considered as a big-match in our league by all measures. For Matchday 15 of Serie A, we will face the reigning Europa League champions: it will be played at the Gewiss Stadium just like last year, on the same day (9 December). On that occasion, the Orobici won with a last minute goal from Muriel. Identical result but in our favour in October 2021, a 2-3 win that we will revisit in this Time Machine. 3 October 2021, on Matchday 7, Atalanta and AC Milan went into the match separated by 5 points in the standings in favour of the Rossoneri.

The fixture before that in Bergamo had gone well for Pioli's side, a 2-0 win decided by two penalties from Kessie that allowed them to return to the Champions League after several years of absence. The 20:45 CEST match immediately saw Davide Calabria's first goal in the championship, masterfully assisted by Theo: his first attempt was saved by Musso, but the winning rebound gave AC Milan the lead after 29 seconds of play. A goal ahead gave us a lot of extra confidence, which increased further after two excellent saves by Maignan first on Zapata and then on Zappacosta. Sandro Tonali, in the 42nd minute, snatched the ball from Freuler and sprinted towards the area, with a precise right-footer past Musso to make it 2-0.

In the second half we were able to keep control of the lead and, in the final minutes, the third goal arrived: Theo burst into the centre and on the edge of the area found space to serve Rafa, who aimed towards the high corner and made it 3-0 with a wonderful right-footer. The game seemed to be over, with just over ten minutes to play, but in the 86th minute a penalty kick was awarded by Di Bello for Messias' hand: Zapata made no mistake from the spot. In the added time, there was room for another goal for the hosts, which came from a controversial contact between Messias and Zapata. The game did not stop and Pašalić made it 3-2. La Dea did not score again and we won.

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