Atalanta vs Venezia 3-1

Atalanta beat Venezia 3-1 at New Balance Arena after racing into a three-goal lead inside the first half. Venezia pulled one back before the interval, and Atalanta finished with 10 men after Elif Elmas was sent off late on.

Franck Kessié opened the scoring in the 4th minute, steering home Nikola Krstović’s assist for 1-0. Krstović then doubled the lead on 6 minutes from Elif Elmas’s pass, before scoring his second of the match on 30 minutes to make it 3-0. Venezia reduced the gap in the 37th minute when Antoine Hainaut scored from Richie Sagrado’s assist, after Sagrado had come on in the 8th minute. It was 3-1 at half-time.

The second half brought no further goals, but Atalanta made changes through the middle and late stages to see the game out. Charles De Ketelaere went off for Lazar Samardzic on 60 minutes, then Giorgio Scalvini and Raoul Bellanova were replaced by Sead Kolašinac and Lorenzo Bernasconi on 67 minutes. Jonathan Rowe and Franck Kessié departed for Nicola Zalewski and Gianluca Gaetano on 76 minutes. Venezia made three changes on 83 minutes and another on 87 minutes, but they did not find a way back into the match. Elif Elmas was then involved in a VAR review on 88 minutes, with the card upgrade confirmed before he was sent off on 89 minutes.

The numbers told a mixed story. Venezia had 64% of the ball and 578 passes to Atalanta’s 331, and they also edged xG 2.44 to 2.16. Atalanta had more shots, 22 to 19, and more on target, 11 to 4, while they led corners 8-7 and Venezia were caught offside 5 times to 0. Atalanta made 3 saves to Venezia’s 7, and fouls finished 14-6 in Atalanta’s favour.

Venezia’s Matias Moreno was booked in the 18th minute and Juan Jesus in the 42nd. Atalanta had no yellow cards, and Elif Elmas was shown red on 89 minutes after the VAR review.