Milan (AFP) – Matteo Pessina grabbed the equaliser for Hellas Verona to hold his high-flying parent club Atalanta 1-1 in Serie A on Saturday.
Atalanta move level on points with second-placed Inter Milan, but are six points adrift of Serie A leaders Juventus.
On-loan Pessina tapped in just before the hour mark in Verona minutes after Colombian striker Duvan Zapata had put the visitors ahead.
Atalanta move level on 71 points with second-placed Inter Milan, but are six points adrift of Serie A leaders Juventus.
Inter Milan travel to fifth-placed Roma on Sunday, with eight-time holders Juventus on Monday hosting fourth-placed Lazio, who are eight points off top spot.
“Talking about the Scudetto was always excessive,” said Gasperini, whose side have now scored in a club record 22 games in a row.
Atalanta’s hopes of a first Scudetto in the team’s 112-year history are all but over with four games left to play.
“Since the restart (after coronavirus), we’ve been notching up results at Scudetto-pace, but that was never our objective because something extraordinary had to happen for us, but also for Juventus.
“We lack a point to get to the Champions League,” continued Gasperini, whose side will play Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight of this year’s edition next month.
“It’s true, our thoughts are on the PSG, a lot. We set some milestones in the championship, the record, the second place.
“But we use these games to prepare ourselves for even higher quality and the Champions League.”
– Milan turn on the power –
Promoted Verona, in ninth, are coached by ex-Croatia midfielder Ivan Juric, who played under Gasperini in Genoa and was his assistant at Inter Milan and then Palermo.
“It was a good match against a difficult team who wanted revenge after a controversial loss to Roma,” added Gasperini, who lamented his side’s “lack of lucidity to close down the game”.
Atalanta threatened early on, with Mario Pasalic, scorer of a hat-trick against Brescia during the week, forcing a save from Marco Silvestri after quarter of an hour.
Zapata came close before the break, before getting his chance five minutes into the second half pouncing on a blunder by Koray Gunter to blast past Silvestri.
It was the Colombian’s 18th goal in all competitions this season, and 80th in his Serie A career between Atalanta, Sampdoria, Udinese and Napoli.
Four minutes later Pessina send in a rebound for his seventh league goal this season.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2OCLRZp
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