A Mateo Retegui brace saw Atalanta come from behind to record a 2-1 win at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, duly avenging September’s shock defeat in the reverse fixture and denying Como a first top-flight H2H double since the 1949/50 season.
Coming into this game looking to record back-to-back wins for just the second time this season, Como nearly got off to a flying start and nearly took the lead after just four minutes. The chance came through Nico Paz, after the Argentinian headed Alieu Fadera’s cross goalwards, but Marco Carnesecchi made the save. Cesc Fàbregas’ side went close again just 10 minutes later with another header, this time it was Yannik Engelhardt who sent a glancing header goalwards, but again Carnesecchi was there to pull off a brilliant save.
However, the hosts finally got their just reward for a dominant start not long after the half-hour mark. The goal came after Fadera and Paz combined again, with the latter firing a beautiful first-time strike from just inside the box into the top-left corner for his fifth goal of the campaign. And Fábregas’ men continued to dominate the game in the minutes leading up to HT too, but couldn’t produce an opportunity that caused any trouble for the Atalanta goalkeeper.
Atalanta posed more of a threat in the opening minutes of the second half than they did in the entirety of the first half, going close to equalising just two minutes after the restart through Giorgio Scalvini. The chance came after the Italian centre-back met Juan Cuadrado’s cross, but his effort was saved in the top-right corner. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side did manage to bring themselves level with just under an hour played though, with renowned danger man Retegui netting his 15th league goal of the season by turning Marco Brescianini’s cross into the bottom-right corner with a fantastic left-footed volley.
Retegui wasn’t done in this game though, as he gave the visitors the lead with 20 minutes left to play. The striker combined with Brescianini once again and kept his cool to control the ball inside the area before dispatching his shot into the bottom-right corner. Atalanta managed to see the game out from there to secure three points in the Serie A after four matches without a win (D3, L1). Meanwhile, Como remain just three points adrift of the bottom three ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
