CAGLIARI: Atalanta set a club record with their 10th consecutive Serie A win when they beat Cagliari 1-0 on Saturday and extended their lead at the top of the standings while Dusan Vlahovic saved Juventus with a last-gasp penalty in a 2-2 draw with bottom club Venezia.

The win moved Atalanta to 37 points, two ahead of Napoli — who defeated Udinese 3-1 later on Saturday — while Cagliari remain 15th in the standings on 14 points.

Cagliari were the better side in the opening half but Atalanta’s Marco Carnes­ecchi kept the game scoreless with several fine saves and the keeper also denied the home team a late equaliser when he pulled off a reflex save from Sebastiano Luperto.

Cagliari forward Rob­erto Piccoli, on loan from Atalanta, appeared to be the danger man, but Carn­esecchi was equal to everything that came his way.

Three times he denied Piccoli, including a double-save when Nadir Zortea had an initial shot from close range parried away before the keeper stopped Piccoli’s effort from the rebound.

Nicolo Zaniolo made sure Atalanta stayed top of Serie A this weekend with the goal which decided a hard-fought encounter in Sardinia, the Italy international forward stroking home the winner from Raoul Bellanova’s cut-back in the 66th minute.

“A good chunk of this team, not everyone, needs to grow up a bit and get the same mentality as the core group of the squad,” said Gasperini, whose decision to make three substitutions at half-time was a sign of his dissatisfaction.

Meanwhile, Juventus are nine points behind Atalanta in sixth after an awful performance agai­nst Venezia which was met with loud disapproval from supporters despite Vlah­ovic’s late leveller.

Juve avoided a first league defeat of the season but a draw does nothing for Thiago Motta’s team who look far behind from competing for the top-spot.

“When we play teams that leave us space we can attack well but when we play against teams that lea­ve little space we have problems like you saw ton­ight,” said Motta. “We can’t stay where we are be­c­ause we have the quality to be higher at the table.”

Vlahovic struck his 11th goal of the season from the spot in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Antonio Candela was penalised for handball, but the goal was met with a combination of cheers and jeers from frustrated fans who watched their team’s 12th draw of the season.

Mikael Ellertsson and Jay Idzes cancelled out Federico Gatti’s 19th-minute opener with two fine headers which put Venezia ahead seven with minutes remaining, but a draw leaves them two points from Como who sit just outside the relegation zone.

In Saturday’s other fixture, Napoli came back from a goal down to secure the three points at the Bluenergy Stadium where they sealed a historic third league crown last year.

Trailing at the break after Florian Thauvin netted on the rebound from his own saved 22nd-minute penalty, Napoli roared back in the second half to delight their large and loud travelling support with strikes from Romelu Lukaku, Andre-Frank Zam­bo Anguissa and Lau­taro Giannetti’s own goal.

Napoli are four points ahead of Lazio and third-placed Inter, who face off in Rome on Monday night.

“I said after we lost to Lazio (last weekend) that we’re on the right track,” said Conte to DAZN.“The team needs to keep playing this kind of football, dictate the game, keep the ball and press when we don’t have it.”

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024