Serie A Top Five, Round Nine: Seventh Heaven for Atalanta!
Atalanta bounced back from their 5-1 drubbing by Manchester City in the Champions League in truly emphatic fashion, defeating Udinese 7-1 in Serie A. Four of their stars feature in the top five of the round, but the pick of the bunch was Ilicic, who scored two goals in the first half. Both came from inside the box, with the first eventually being given after a VAR intervention. He also played a part in winning the penalty to make it 2-1, with Luis Muriel scoring the subsequent spotkick. He won the majority of his duels on the day as well as 100% of his attempted tackles.
Muriel recorded a hat-trick in the same game, but loses out to Ilicic due to two of his goals on the day coming from the penalty spot. His team-mate won the first, while he won the second after being scythed down by the defender. Both were taken expertly, as was his other goal, sandwiched in between, which was drilled home after the reversed pass from Alejandro Gomez. He also won the majority of his duels and 100% of his tackles against the hapless Udinese defence. Throw in four ball recoveries, too, for good measure.
De Roon and Muriel, unusually for FC, finished with the exact same score from the game, but for very different reasons. The Dutchman was a terrier in midfield, making nine ball recoveries and two interceptions, whilst winning 6/8 duels and 3/5 tackles. He contributed going forward too, however, as he assisted two of the goals. His first came for Ilicic after a slid pass into the path of his team-mate, while the second was for the seventh goal of the match - for 17-year old wonderkid Amad traore.
With Juventus surprisingly drawing with Lecce on Saturday, Inter had the opportunity to go top of Serie A with a win against Parma. It didn't happen, as they also drew after a 2-2 result. This was despite the efforts of Antonio Candreva, who was excellent after being buoyed by his goal against Dortmund in the Champions League. He scored the opener, albeit fortuitously, with a deflected strike past the goalkeeper from range, while he set-up Romelu Lukaku's equaliser to make it 2-2 after VAR deemed the Belgian as being onside. If not for the profligacy of his team-mates, Candreva would likely have had more assists, as he fired in a whopping 20 crosses into the box on the day.
It wouldn't be a huge win for Atalanta without Gomez getting involved, as he did with two assists. His brilliance was shown by the fact that each goal was assisted by a different foot, at opposite sides of the pitch. He set up Muriel's second with a flashed cross from the right, with his right foot, and then set up Mario Pasalic with a low cross, from the left, with his left foot. He was unlucky not to score himself, as he had three shots on target which were saved by the Udinese goalkeeper.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Parma forward Yann Karamoh (8.1) was the scourge of his former club, Inter, this weekend as he scored one and assisted another in the aforementioned 2-2 result at San Siro. His own goal was a cracker, which he decided not to celebrate...
ROUND TO FORGET
Nearly every Udinese player could warrant a place here but the worst offenders in the 7-1 defeat by Atalanta were William Troost-Ekong (3.7) who won zero tackles, zero duels, and zero aerial duels, Nicholas Opoku (4) who was sent off after 30 minutes, and goalkeeper Juan Musso (3.9) who conceded seven goals.