Empoli, view of Bergamo. Nicola challenges Gasperini with an 8-2 to avenge

by Simone Cioni

Atalanta-Empoli scheduled for Sunday at 6pm will also feature Gian Piero Gasperini against Davide Nicola. Two coaches who have different game ideas in common, starting from the tactical layout to the aggressiveness of their teams, passing through the search for depth to attack, especially without the ball. However, if the Italian coach has only been on the Empoli bench for three months, Gasperini has led Atalanta for eight seasons now, leading it to be a protagonist in Europe too and not just in Italy. Before this match the two have met just eight times with the balance clearly leaning in favor of the Orobic coach: five wins to zero with three draws. The last time dates back to January 15th last year and is a decidedly bitter precedent for Nicola, who on that occasion received a resounding ‘lesson’ with his Salernitana: it ended 8-2 for the Dea. Again in Bergamo, the three previous matches were much more balanced, all ending in a draw with goals: 1-1 in the 2021-’22 season again against Salernitana, 3-3 in the previous one against Torino and 2-2 in the championship of Serie A 2019-’20 with Genoa. So, if on the one hand he never managed to beat Gasperini, on the other Nicola has only lost one of the last four direct clashes with his colleague.

Without history, however, the first four matches which saw the current Empoli coach lose 3-1 at home and 1-0 away against Crotone in 2016-’17 and then 5-1 in Bergamo in the following season again with the Calabrian rossoblù and 3-1 in front of their fans against Udinese in 2018-’19. A curiosity concerns the formation with which Nicola achieved the three draws, i.e. the 3-5-2 that he has also been adopting recently against Empoli. Since the away match in Milan against Inter, in fact, the Azzurri have always played with two closer strikers and Zurkowski or, last Saturday Fazzini, employed as a right midfielder with the license to rise a lot, but also decidedly lower when not in possession. We’ll see if the Piedmontese coach decides on the same tactical approach for next Sunday’s match.

Certainly, from a defensive point of view, a key to the match could be the ability of Atalanta’s attacking midfielders (De Ketelaere, Koopmeiners or Pasalic) to always know how to find themselves free between the lines, as well as the tendency of the Nerazzurri from Bergamo to accept the ‘one on one behind. An aspect that Cambiaghi and his teammates could exploit by managing to bring the right pressure to certain areas of the pitch, and then quickly turn the game around. Gasperini in recent years, faithful to the three-man defence, has however shown that he knows how to evolve especially with regards to offensive solutions, always with an eye on lateral attacks: also in this case, excellent harmony will be needed in the right and left chains of Empoli between arm, winger and midfielder. Atalanta, with Fiorentina, at least until tonight is the only team still in contention on three fronts, championship, Italian cup and Europe, but has also already demonstrated that it has the squad to withstand a match every three days.