Over the last decade, Atalanta has cemented themselves as Juventus’ bogey team. It was something that had been developing for years even before former club president Andrea Agnelli made his ill-fated March 2020 comments questioning whether the club deserved to be in the Champions League after “one great season” as opposed to other Italian clubs that had deeper history, but that asinine remark threw into stark relief just how much Atalanta had had Juve’s number over the last seven to eight years.
Indeed, Juventus hadn’t beaten La Dea on home turf since March, 13, 2018. Gonzalo Higuain and Blaise Matuidi were Juve’s goalscorers that day. In the intervening years, Juve have drawn six and lost two against Atalanta at the Allianz, counterintuitively only managing to beat them at the New Balance Arena.
But on this day, September 20, 2026, Juventus finally broke that streak. (Unrelated but no less awesome: my son turned five!) A brilliant passing move midway through the first half and an opportunistic header off a corner kick—along with a brilliant goal-line clearance from a striker, no less—ensured that they repeated the 2-0 scoreline of that day eight years ago. Overall Juve performed well enough to keep the momentum they had gained after keelhauling NEC Nijmegen on Thursday going into the international break, and saw some important players continue to carry some momentum into into the winter break after that premier European triumph.
Lucinano Spalletti decided to keep the three-man defense that had worked so well on Thursday going on Sunday, albeit with some personnel changes. Kamil Grabara, who had started that match in goal, was lost to a torn ACL in training, joining long-term injury absences Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khéphren Thuram, Jérémie Boga, Andrea Cambiaso, Jeff Ekhator, and Juan Cabal. Guglielmo Vicario started in goal behind the back three of Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Jhon Lucumí. Nico González and Zeki Çelik started in the wing-back spots, bookending Weston McKennie and Douglas Luiz in midfield. Francisco Concieção and Kerim Alajbegovic started underneath Randal Kolo Muani as the striker.
Former Juve manager Maurizio Sarri countered that with a 4-3-3 setup. Odilon Kossounou, Isak Hien and Kamaldeen Sulemana were missing from the matchday squad. Marco Carnsecchi started in goal, protected by Raoul Bellanova, Giorgio Scalvini, Thomas Kristiensen, and Lorenzo Bernasconi. Éderson, Franck Kessie, and Lazar Samardzic started in midfield, while Charles De Ketelaere, Nikola Krstovic, and Jonathan Rowe made up the attacking trident.
It was a slow start to things for both sides. In the first 25 minutes both sides blocked shots while making a couple of attempts off-target. It was the 28th minute when things suddenly burst into life after an extended sequence of passes by Juve in the Atalanta attacking half. It was, ironically, the kind of goal Sarri would love, with a number of short balls sandwiched around the a Kalulu cross that was cleared but recovered and recycled. Eventually the ball was worked to Çelik, who displayed a stunning bit of vision by pulling the ball into an open pocket of space in the box for Conceição, who ran onto the ball and ripped a one-time shot to the near post, which Carnesecchi had uncharacteristically left open as he watched the ball move across the box, seemingly forgetting about the diminutive Portuguese.
Pape Matar Sarr came on for Alajbegovic as the second half got underway, and it seemed to give Juve a little more juice in midfield in the early phases. González whipped a header across the goal off an early corner, while Atalanta finally started to look lively when Rowe fired on the counter, forcing Vicario to parry it wide enough to force De Ketelaere to chase the rebount as opposed to simply fire it at goal.
Things were far more frantic in the second period than the first, and in the 58th minute McKennie fired a header right at Carnsecchi off a cross from Çelik. Three minutes later the unlikely form of Kolo Muani came up huge on his own goal like, heading a shot from Kristensen off the line after an Atalanta corner.
Things slowed up a bit through the middle phases of the half, but it was Sarr who made some noise with 15 minutes left when he took a layoff by Edon Zhegrova and hit a low shot with a wicked curve that forced Carnesecchi into a good save. Kalulu forced a corner (perhaps luckily so, as he was a little out of control) a minute or so later, and when Zhegrova sent the delivery into the box Bremer made a fantastic run, deftly slipping around Scalvini and into position to thump a header into the net to give Juve the breathing room they desperately needed.
Kolo Muani nearly claimed a third, exchanging passes with Nick Woltemade only to be denied by a charging Carnesecchi at the top of the six-yard box, and Teun Koopmeiners’ header off the ensuing corner was cleared away by Giacomo Raspadori. But it was all that was needed as the final whistle blew, and Juventus headed into the locker room with two convincing wins in a row to take into the international break.
