Atalanta v Bologna: pre-match notes

August draws to a close, and so does Serie A Matchday 2: on the final day of the month, Atalanta are once again set to take centre stage at the New Balance Arena. There is a sense of déjà vu about the fixture — another home game, another Emilian side with a new head coach, and another 20:45 CEST kick-off — but the colours are changing, as Sassuolo’s Neroverdi make way for Bologna’s Rossoblù. For the second league act of the season, Domenico Tedesco’s Bologna are heading to Bergamo.

Ahead of kick-off, let’s dive into the stories, stats and curiosities surrounding Atalanta-Bologna.

Two at home...

Sassuolo first, Bologna next: with an all-Emilian double-header, Atalanta open their league campaign with two consecutive games at the New Balance Arena. It is the first time this has happened in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era.

To find another time the Nerazzurri played both of their opening two league fixtures at home, we have to go all the way back to 1947/48, when the then Stadio Brumana welcomed Bari, beaten 3-1, followed by Inter, with the game ending 1-1.

Curiously, the script had been exactly the opposite in the previous two seasons. In 2023/24, Atalanta opened their campaign with back-to-back away games at Sassuolo and Frosinone, while in 2024/25 they began with no fewer than three consecutive trips, facing Lecce, Torino and Inter before making their home debut on Matchday 4.

A Royal Flush of Goals

Seven games, seven wins and a remarkable goalscoring progression. Between 2013/14 and 2020/21, Atalanta recorded seven consecutive home victories over Bologna, scoring 18 goals and conceding just four.

The scorelines make the streak even more unusual: across those seven games, the Nerazzurri won while scoring one, two, three, four and five goals. A full goalscoring sequence, completed by the 5-0 win on 25 April 2021, the final victory in the run, with five different players on the scoresheet: Malinovskyi, Muriel, Freuler, Zapata and Miranchuk.

Braces yes, hat-tricks never

From Bassetto to Iličić, the history of Serie A meetings between Atalanta and Bologna in Bergamo also features a fair collection of braces. The Nerazzurri have recorded eight in total, spread across more than 60 years and scored by seven different players. Yet no one has ever managed to turn a brace into a hat-trick.

Adriano Bassetto was the first to strike twice, in the 3-2 win on 30 September 1956. Then came Enrico Nova, the only player to achieve the feat twice: in the 3-0 win in 1960 and the 4-1 victory in 1965. That latter game remains unique in the history of the fixture, as Giancarlo Danova also scored twice, meaning all four Atalanta goals came courtesy of two brace scorers.

The list continues with Walter Pasciullo, who struck twice in the 4-0 win in 1991, and Cristiano Doni, scorer of both Atalanta goals in the 2-2 draw in 2002. The most recent was Josip Iličić, who needed just two minutes to complete his brace in the 4-1 win in April 2019, scoring in the 3rd and 5th minutes: the quickest brace in the history of this fixture in Bergamo.

History repeats itself... with a twist

31 August 1997 and 31 August 2026: 29 years later, Atalanta and Bologna meet again in Bergamo on exactly the same date. Back then, the league campaign had only just begun too, with the Nerazzurri claiming a 4-2 win on Matchday 1 of the 1997/98 Serie A season.

That 1997 encounter, together with the 0-0 draw on 28 August 2021, represents one of only two previous Serie A meetings between the sides in Bergamo to have been played in August. The 2021 fixture also marks their only previous Matchday 2 meeting in Bergamo, making this year's clash just the second.

There is, however, one slot on the calendar still waiting to be filled: Atalanta and Bologna have never previously met in Bergamo on a Monday in Serie A. Another first for a fixture that, fittingly, returns to the very same date 29 years later.

The Bergamo factor

A fixture spanning more than a century of history, Atalanta-Bologna continues to add new chapters to one of the Nerazzurri’s longest-standing match-ups. Bologna are the opponents Atalanta have beaten more times than any other side, with 47 wins, although the overall record is remarkably balanced: across 130 competitive meetings, the Rossoblù have claimed 48 victories, with 35 draws and just two goals separating the teams overall (153-155).

In Bergamo, however, the balance shifts firmly in Atalanta’s favour. Across 65 competitive home meetings, the Nerazzurri have recorded 34 wins, compared with Bologna’s 14, alongside 17 draws. The home factor is just as evident in front of goal: 99 of Atalanta’s 153 goals in the fixture have come on home soil.

Statistical data: Lega Serie A Pre-Match Pointers