Atalanta took its Serie A tally to 95 goals, the highest by any side in a single season for more than 60 years, when it beat Bologna 1-0 on Tuesday in a match featuring a furious row between the two coaches.
Half-time substitute Luis Muriel scored the only goal in the 62nd minute to extend Atalanta’s unbeaten run in Serie A to 15 games and take it second on 74 points with three matches left. However, it is six behind leader Juventus, which has a game in hand and is poised to claim the title. Inter Milan, which hosts Fiorentina on Wednesday, is third with 72.
The previous side to score 95 goals was Fiorentina in 1958-59 while Atalanta is still well short of Torino’s all-time record of 125 set in 1947-48.
Flared tempers
Tempers flared in the first half when Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini complained to the referee about a Bologna player and was hailed with expletives by his opposite number Sinisa Mihajlovic. With no spectators in the stadium, Mihajlovic’s obscene outburst was captured by microphones and broadcast to viewers around the world. Both men were booked and Gasperini was then sent off for continuing to remonstrate with officials.
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Bologna, which was thumped 5-1 by AC Milan in its previous outing to Mihajlovic’s fury, had the best effort of the opening period when Musa Barrow’s curling free kick smacked the bar. The Gambian was again close on the hour when he side-footed over after Takehiro Tomiyasu pulled the ball back, but Atalanta scored in its next attack.
Timothy Castagne’s cross into the area found Duvan Zapata who laid it off for his fellow Colombian Muriel to fire into the net and extend 10th-placed Bologna’s winless run to five games.
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