Atalanta v Sassuolo: pre-match notes

With their Conference League debut now in the books, there is one last countdown to tick off in Atalanta’s summer: the 2026/27 Serie A campaign gets underway on Sunday 23 August at 20:45 CEST! As we await the opening whistle, here are some stories, stats and trivia to set the scene for Atalanta v Sassuolo.

A Matchday 1 of firsts…

Sassuolo will provide the opposition as Atalanta open their new league campaign at the New Balance Arena, on a Matchday 1 marked by a number of firsts. Starting in the dugouts: Maurizio Sarri and Alberto Aquilani will make their Serie A debuts at the helm of Atalanta and Sassuolo respectively, officially ushering in new eras for both sides.

Another first concerns the fixture itself: never before have Atalanta and Sassuolo opened a Serie A season against each other in Bergamo. Their only previous Matchday 1 meeting dates back to 20 August 2023, when the Nerazzurri ran out 2-0 winners at the Mapei Stadium courtesy of late goals from Charles De Ketelaere, who marked his competitive Atalanta debut with his first goal for the club, and Nadir Zortea.

A long Nerazzurri run

There have been 17 competitive Atalanta v Sassuolo fixtures with the Nerazzurri as the home side, yielding 13 Atalanta wins, two draws and two Sassuolo victories. Only 16 of those games, however, were actually played in Bergamo: the exception was the 3-1 win on 26 May 2019, when renovation work on Atalanta’s stadium saw the Nerazzurri “host” Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia.

The history of the fixture also features a lengthy unbeaten run for Atalanta, who once went 12 consecutive home games without defeat against Sassuolo. Taking away fixtures into account as well, that streak stretched to 16 competitive meetings, comprising 11 wins and five draws.

61 times on target

Atalanta have enjoyed a particularly prolific record against Sassuolo over the years, scoring 61 goals across all competitive meetings, at an average of more than two per game. No other current Serie A side has scored more against the Neroverdi.

Leading Atalanta’s scoring charts in the fixture is Duván Zapata with seven goals, ahead of Papu Gómez (5) and Robin Gosens (4). The Colombian also found the net in the Nerazzurri’s two biggest wins over Sassuolo: the 6-2 victory in Reggio Emilia in December 2018, Atalanta’s highest-scoring performance in the fixture, and the 5-1 win in Bergamo in January 2021, which remains their biggest home victory over the Emilian side.

Same winning margin, different cast: at the Mapei Stadium, Zapata, Gómez and Mancini all found the net alongside Iličić, who helped himself to a hat-trick; in Bergamo, Duván bagged a brace, with Pessina, Gosens and Muriel completing the five-goal haul.

Goals against the clock

Atalanta have often found the net before the break against Sassuolo in Bergamo: 17 of their 33 goals have come in the opening 45 minutes. The closing stages of the first half have proved the most productive, with 10 goals scored from the 31st minute onwards, compared with four between the 16th and 30th minutes and three inside the opening quarter of an hour.

Early goals may have been relatively rare, but among them is Atalanta’s fastest-ever strike in the fixture: on 21 September 2021, Robin Gosens needed just 2 minutes and 46 seconds to break the deadlock in the “City of the Thousand”.

A matter of first goals

The first Atalanta player to get his name on the scoresheet against Sassuolo was Massimo Donati, who opened the scoring in a 3-0 Coppa Italia first-round win in August 2006, the first competitive meeting between the two sides. That game also holds another distinction ahead of Sunday 23 August: it remains the only previous Atalanta-Sassuolo fixture played in Bergamo in August.

The next chapter takes us to the 2010/11 Serie B season, when Gennaro Delvecchio settled the meeting in Bergamo with a 61st-minute winner, assisted by Barreto. For Atalanta’s first Serie A goal against Sassuolo, however, we have to fast-forward to 12 April 2015.

Germán Denis was the man to break the duck, and he did so in some style: in the 42nd minute, El Tanque fired the Nerazzurri ahead with a spectacular overhead kick before converting from the spot after the break to complete his brace and seal the 2-1 win.