Overview
Atalanta have been in impressive form recently. After an unstable start, coach Gian Piero Gasperini's team has regained stability and won 10 consecutive rounds in Serie A.
In particular, the home team at Gewiss defeated tough opponents such as Napoli, AC Milan, AS Roma and led the rankings after round 16. In fact, Atalanta is considered one of the candidates to win Serie A this season.
The attack is the mainstay for Atalanta to play well. Since the beginning of the season, they have scored 40 goals (an average of 2.5 goals/match) in Serie A.
Notably, rookie striker Mateo Retegui quickly became a mainstay of Atalanta and is currently leading the list of top scorers with 12 goals. In addition, Gasperini also has other excellent attacking players such as Lookman, De Ketelaere and Zaniolo.
Meanwhile, in the last 5 rounds of Serie A, coach Roberto D’Aversa’s team has only won 1 match and suffered 2 defeats. Before round 17 took place, Empoli ranked 10th with 19 points and was the team with the third worst attack in the tournament (scoring only 14 goals).
Obviously, the current strength of Atalanta and Empoli is not small. Not to mention, Atalanta also dominates in terms of head-to-head record when defeating the home team Carlo Castellani in 4/5 recent matches.
Most likely, Gasperini's team will have an easy victory, thereby continuing to consolidate the top position in the table.
Human resources situation
Atalanta will be without Marten De Roon due to suspension, while Scalvini, Ruggeri and Scamacca are all absent due to injury.
On the other side of the front line, Empoli also lacks De Sciglio due to suspension. Solbakken, Brancolini, Ebuehi, Zurkowski, Sazonov, Haas and Pellegri are also still sidelined due to injury.
Expected lineup:
Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Kossounou, Hien, Kolasinac, Bellanova, Pasalic, Ederson, Ruggeri, De Ketelaere, Lookman, Retegui.
Empoli: Vasquez, Goglichidze, Ismajli, Viti, Gyasi, Anjorin, Maleh, Pezzella, Esposito, Cacace, Colombo.
The match between Atalanta and Empoli takes place at 0:00 a.m. on December 23 (Vietnam time).
