De Ketelaere's beaut puts the ribbon on our 3-2 win over Empoli

Along came De Ketelaere!!! Sending the Gewiss Stadium crowd into a frenzy in the last home game of 2024, the Belgian unwrapped Atalanta's 11th consecutive league win with a literal crowning jewel as the 2024-2025 Serie A Enilive MD17 culminates in a climactic 3-2 comeback triumph for the Nerazzurri, at the end of an edge-of-the-seat goal galore, courtesy of CDK's double and Lookman's goal in between.

Donning the one-off kit for the 2024 Xmas Match, the Nerazzurri started off on the offensive and threatened twice in close succession through Djimsiti and Éderson but it was Empoli who took the lead instead on 12 minutes through Colombo's winning tap-in. The hosts neared the equaliser in the 24th through Kolašinac, who saw his header on De Ketelaere's cross hackishly tipped on the post by Vasquez to deny Atalanta's equaliser, before eventually pulling it off roughly 10 minutes later courtesy of De Ketelaere's swan dive on Zappacosta's cross. 42 minutes on the stopwatch and here came Atalanta's second hit on the woodwork as Djimsiti's liftoff on De Ketelaere's freekick clipped the far post. Atalanta eventually performed the comeback on the onset of injury time through Lookman, who controlled Zaniolo's brush into the box before firing it home to turn the match around on 45+1 minutes.

While the opening of the second half saw the Nerazzurri up in arms as both De Ketelaere and Éderson grazed the far post, the visitors levelled through Esposito on 57 minutes after being awarded a penalty kick upon V.A.R. on-field review. The black-and-blue relentless forcing paid off in the 86th as De Ketelaere skipped past three defenders to cut through the middle and then bent his long-range daisy cutter into the bottom left corner to make it 3-2 for Atalanta and put the black-and-blue ribbon on top of the 2024 Christmas Match.

ATALANTA 3-2 EMPOLI

Scorers: Colombo 12, 58 (E), De Ketelaere 34, 86 (A) 45+1 Lookman (A), Esposito pen 57 (E).

Atalanta: Carnesecchi, Kossounou, Djimsiti (Hien 71), Kolašinac, Bellanova (Cuadrado 80), Pašalić, Éderson, Zappacosta (Ruggeri 71), De Ketelaere, Retegui (Zaniolo 21), Lookman (Samardžić 71). Unused bench: Rui Patrício, Rossi, Toloi, Godfrey, Sulemana, Palestra, Brescianini. Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini.

Empoli: Vasquez, Goglichidze (Marianucci 80), Ismajli, Cacace, Gyasi, Anjorin, Henderson (Sambia 85), Grassi (Maleh 71), Pezzella, Esposito (Fazzini 71), Colombo. Unused bench: Perisan, Seghetti, Ekong, Tosto, El Biache, Konate. Coach: Roberto D'Aversa.

Referee: Mr Ermanno Feliciani from Teramo;
Assistant referees: Alessandro Costanzo from Orvieto and Giuseppe Perrotti from Campobasso;
Fourth official: Alberto Ruben Arena from Torre del Greco;
V.A.R.: Davide Ghersini from Genova;
A.V.A.R.: Daniele Doveri from Roma 1.

Notes: Zaniolo (A), D'Aversa (E) and Pezzella (E) booked.