Atalanta wasted his lead twice after Juventus, the leading club, equalized 2-2 with two fatal penalty kicks from two hands, on Saturday in the 32nd stage of the Italian League, so he failed to rise to second place and benefit from the third stumbling, respectively, for runner-up Lazio.
The Bergamo team, one of the most affected cities in Italy with new deaths from the Corona virus, is living in a wonderful period that reached nine successive wins in the league before yesterday's meeting.
But the goal of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo in the last moments prevented him to reduce the difference to six points with the defending champion, who became very close to crowning the ninth in a row, as he moved 8 points away from Lazio and nine from Atalanta.
Atalanta, who faces Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals in the best continental career in his history, raised his score to 67 points, six stages before the end of the league, while Lazio, who lost to Sassuolo 1-2, freezes its score from 68 points.
Atalanta coach Jean-Piero Gasperini expressed his anger at the way the penalty kicks are calculated, "What should we do? Cut our hands? This is not the first penalty kick that we see. This is crazy, and the interpretation of Al Qaeda here is unlike other places. Other countries do not award penalty kicks for similar cases." But well, these are the laws here. "
Juventus defense center Leonardo Bonucci said: "Facing Atalanta is always difficult, and we have dedicated ourselves to the team. This is a very important point. We tried to win and we could not, but staying away from Lazio and Atalanta is very important."
"We have to get our breath back now, because playing against Sassuolo Wednesday will also be difficult. We knew that if we did not move the ball quickly with a touch or two, we would suffer in front of Atalanta. We suffered first, but we kept our heads up and waited for the right opportunity."
The Juventus players, who lost in their last match against Milan 2-4, watched in the first minutes against their opponents transfer the ball, until the Colombian Dovan Zapata opened the score, when the Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Bantancourt invaded the area after a pass from the Argentine captain, Papa Gomez, and fired a powerful shot. Wojciech Chicheni (16) failed to hold it back, raising his score to 15 goals.
Atalanta found the net from the 20th consecutive game in the league, in a precedent since the 1956 season (23 games), and it also became the first team since Juventus in the 1952 season, three of its players reach the goal barrier of 15 goals in one season (Luis Moral 17, Josep Ilicich 15).
Juventus tried to return with a dangerous shot for Argentine Paulo Dybala (33), but he did not do much in the first half and only delayed a goal.
It was remarkable that Gasperini was directed by his Slovenian stars, Josep Ilicic, Zapata and Gomez (he played his 300th league game) early in the second half.
At the start of the second, Juventus got a penalty kick to bounce off De Ron from his hand, translated by Cristiano Ronaldo, recording the equalizer and bringing his team back into the match (55).
The Ukrainian substitute, Ruslan Malinovsky, came close to scoring the decisive ball, but she passed close to the left post of Juventus goal (75).
Ronaldo then fired a powerful shot that brilliantly shot away goalkeeper Pierre Luigi Golini (76).
But Malinovski's second attempt was decisive and exploded in "Bianconeri" from the edge of the region to the left of Chicheny (80).
At a time when the most powerful attack in the league was close to achieving victory, the Colombian substitute Luis Moriel touched the ball with his hand in a place far from the goal, so that the referee calculated a second penalty, translated by Ronaldo, also saving his team from loss (89).
This is the twenty-eighth goal of Ronaldo, the best player in the world five times, a difference from the top scorer of the striker Lazio Ciro Imobili.
Lazio collapse
Lazio had followed its collapse with a third loss, in front of its guest Sassuolo 1-2 at the time of the killer.
After the league resumed a point behind Juventus and appeared to be the only candidate to be sent to the throne for not losing in 21 consecutive games, Lazio fell four times in six games.
After returning from the standstill of the new Corona virus, Lazio suffered a setback after another, losing to the powerful Atalanta before being defeated twice in a row against Milan and the humble Lecce.
His coach Simone Inzaghi said, "Unfortunately this is not Lazio that we saw before the stone and this is clearly visible. We present everything, but it is not enough. A lot has been said about us recently. Talking about the Scudetto (the league title) is dangerous. We must remain confident until the end, But it is a critical moment. "
Lazio's hopes of securing his third Serie A title dwindled after 1974 and 2000.
"The only way to gain confidence is to win. We have many problems that I do not want to use to make excuses, but we have spoken to the team in the past few days, and they have criticized themselves as well. We have to go back," Albanian Lazio Sports Director Egli Tarry explained before the match the dark period the team is going through. On the right track. "
He continued to "Sky Sports": "When you miss 14 players because of injuries and suspensions, it is impossible to give 100% if you play once every three days. We will not use them as excuses but as an additional catalyst."
The guests posed a threat to Lazio and video technology contributed to the cancellation of an early goal by Jacomo Rasbaduri, who played his first basic match with Sassuolo, eighth (7), and then bounced back to Serbian club Philippe Djoricic from the Albanian goalkeeper Thomas Stracusha (12).
Luis Alberto responded with a ball that toppled it over the crossbar near the penalty spot (11), but in the next attempt the Spaniard caught the ball from the middle of the area to the right of the goalkeeper (33), registering his sixth goal this season.
After video technology banned it in the first half, the young man, Rasbaduri, 20, equalized when he faced the goalkeeper from close range and scored an easy ball against Stracusha (52).
Chero Imobili tried to find solutions from a beautiful shot that drew the right post (66).
While the match was heading towards a tie, Sassuolo scored the second in the deadly time after a cross he watched close to veteran goal line Francesco Caputo (90 + 1), with Sassuolo achieving his fourth win.
With his 16th goal of the season, Kabuto equaled Domenico Berardi in the 2014 season, as the best record for Sassuolo in one season in the first division.
Rome returned with an easy win from the land of Brescia with three cleansers signed by Federico Fazio (49), Croatian Nikola Kalinic (62) and the young man who returned from the injury of Nikolo Dzaniolo (74).
With his second victory, the capital team temporarily moved away three points from Napoli VI, who receives Milan VII on Sunday in a very strong and important match in the struggle to qualify for the European League.
Port-g / g t