After a comprehensive win at the Merseyside against Liverpool three days ago, Atalanta got a rude awakening by Verona’s comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in Bergamo.
La Dea were expected to bring the enthusiasm and form to Serie A but missed an opportunity to close on Bologna and Roma, who had stalled.
It was a good outing for a Verona team who knew a point would take them out of the relegation zone.
The hosts needed 13 minutes to go into the lead through Gianluca Scamacca, who continued his extraordinary form with a third Serie A game on target.
After Koopmeiners won the ball back in midfield, he immediately found the striker with a slide-rule pass. All Scamacca did was flick it up with his left foot and thumped the right-foot shot on the volley under the bar.
Veronw got a promising opportunity, but Suslo scuffed the finish when Tijjani Noslin found it.
Atalanta punished them for their mistake, and they immediately countered to score a second. Scamacca released a first-time through ball to Ederson into acres of space to beat Lorenzo Montipò one-on-one.
Koopmeiners had an opportunity to make it three but fired over from six yards after Charles De Ketelaere flicked on a long throw-in. Mario Pasalic also failed to keep his finish down from a promising team move.
Montipò was called into action again but palmed the Pasalic glancing header off the line, and Koopmeiners saw his angled drive flash inches wide of the far post.
Atalanta were enjoying the one-way traffic, but Montipò again made a good safe with one strong hand that denied the De Ketelaere strike from distance.
After Suslov stung Marco Carnesecchi’s gloves from a distance, Juan Cabal again stung his gloves with a powerful effort, and Verona eventually scored.
They reduced the deficit when Noslin found Darko Lazovic on the counter-attack; the finish went through Rafael Toloi’s legs to wrong-foot Carnesecchi.
The visitors needed just four minutes to complete the comeback when Fabien Centonze whipped in a low cross from the right, and nobody reacted except Noslin, who flicked it in from six yards.
Atalanta got another chance to restore their lead. Still, Aleksei Miranchuk forced a tough save at the near post after combining with Ademola Lookman, while Emil Holm fired over following a well-worked move.
Montipò again stopped Miranchuk from scoring with another top safe from a distance.
The goalkeeper ensured his side left with a point as he smothered a Miranchuk tap-in from the Koopmeiners roll across.
Written by Oladipupo Mojeed
