Atalanta had an early scare, but fought back to beat Salernitana 2-1 with Gianluca Scamacca and Teun Koopmeiners, catching Roma in fifth place with a game in hand.
The battle for the Champions League spots could all end up going down to the match Atalanta still need to reschedule against Fiorentina, which might be played after the Serie A season has concluded.
See how the game unfolded on the Liveblog.
La Dea rotated the squad after a 1-1 Europa League semi-final draw with Olympique Marseille and the second leg coming up on Thursday. Sead Kolasinac joined Rafael Toloi and Emil Holm on the treatment table too, while doomed Salernitana had Niccolò Pierozzi suspended, Antonio Candreva, Grigoris Kastanos, Giulio Maggiore, Jerome Boateng, Guillermo Ochoa and Norbert Gyomber not fully fit.
Ademola Lookman fired over from the edge of the box and Aleksei Miranchuk bent a finish inches wide after a well-worked passing move, while Gianluca Scamacca’s shot was charged down by Atalanta teammate Miranchuk by mistake.
However, Salernitana took the lead against the run of play, as Loum Tchaouna ran onto an Emanuel Vignato through ball down the right, cut inside Marten de Roon and steered a snooker shot into the far bottom corner.
Lookman only scuffed a Scamacca cross to skim the far post, while Lorenzo Pirola made a decisive block on Miranchuk.
Atalanta made three changes at half-time, but nearly went 2-0 down straight away, Marco Carnesecchi flying to palm away the Tchaouna scorcher from outside the area.
Lookman surged through the centre only to skim the upright from 12 yards, but the substitutions worked, as Teun Koopmeiners floated a ball onto the head of Mario Pasalic, knocked down for the Scamacca tap-in.
Koopmeiners really did make the difference, as he then earned a corner, which was not cleared effectively, leading to the Dutchman sweeping first time into the far bottom corner from distance.
Teun Koopmeiners made that look so easy 😮💨
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/fWgzp9OLAr
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 6, 2024
However, Hans Hateboer had to use his stomach to make a goal-line clearance on the Shon Weissman strike from point-blank range, then Tchaouna sprinted away from Berat Djimsiti to fire over from a tricky angle.
Salernitana 1-2 Atalanta
Tchaouna 18 (S), Scamacca 57 (A), Koopmeiners 63 (A)
Player statistic
Loum Tchaouna (Assist: Emanuel Vignato) |
18' | |||
Triantafyllos Pasalidis | 45' |
57' | Gianluca Scamacca (Assist: Mario Pasalic) | |||
63' | Teun Koopmeiners |