For those of you who do not know, Atalanta was a female hero from Greek mythology that could rival the best of men. Raised in the wild, and being of divine and royal lineage, she grew up to be unmatched in every athletic discipline. All that challenged her and lost would lose their head, and many fine young men met that exact fate. This season, the club Atalanta is being worthy of their name giver. Humiliating their opponents in the Champions League and challenging the top teams in the Serie A.
This Wednesday she faces off against Lazio, a club that also descends from greek mythology. This is shown in their club colour (white and light blue, the colours of the greek flag) and that they play their home games in the Olympic Stadium. It is an homage to the Olympic Games, once founded by Heracles in ancient Greece.
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The post-corona form
The coronavirus break did not seem to have any effect on Atalanta’s form, picking up a relatively easy 4-1 against Sassuolo last Sunday. It is yet another win, even without the prolific Josip Ilicic for the squad of Gian Piero Gasperini. Lifted on their historical progression in the Champion’s League, it seems hard for any team to break the spell of success.
Atalanta is the Ajax (another Greek Hero) of last year: fun to watch attacking pressure football with a lot of goals. 74 goals thus far in the Serie A is an incredible amount. Ilicic, Luis Muriel and Zapata are all in double figures. This is a part of the explanation for the success; the goals come from so many players instead of just one star striker.
Lazio and Atalanta have more in common than their interest in Greek mythology. They are currently on second place with just 4 points behind on Juventus and with a win streak of four. Inzaghi has bragging rights on least losses (2!) and goals conceded (23). Unlike Atalanta, Lazio has a stark striker in the form of Ciro Immobile. This Italian player makes even Christiano Ronaldo look bad this season with 27 goals thus far.
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Atalanta vs Lazio Predictions
This highly anticipated fixture has no clear favourite with 2 teams being at their best and the last encounter ending in a draw (3-3 in october). This is why we look at home team advantage and injuries/suspensions. Although Atalanta is missing Mario Pasalic and probably Lilicic, Lazio is missing Lulic, Marusic, but also most likely Lucas Leiva and Luis Felipe. This makes Atalanta a slight favourite in our eyes, but we could see a bet on both sides or a draw as well. A good bet for this game would be to go over 2.5 goals.
