Verona vs Atalanta: Crucial points battle

Saturday’s programme closes at the Bentegodi with Verona taking on Atalanta. Just over 100 kilometres separate the cities, but their situations this season are very far apart: Verona have collected only one point from their last five matches, remain without a win in this campaign and need an immediate change of pace to escape the bottom. Atalanta, 10 points above them, seem to have moved past their difficult spell and head to Verona looking for a second straight win after beating Fiorentina, as they continue their push towards the European places.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

The official encounters between the two teams in Verona are 44: a record of 14 victories for the Veronese (the last one 2-1 in Serie A 2015/16), 12 draws (the last one 1-1 in Serie A 2019/20), and 18 Atalanta victories (the last one 0-5 in Serie A 2024/25, four goals from Retegui and one from Ederson). 5 consecutive victories for Atalanta at Bentegodi against Verona: the last positive result for the gialloblù at home was the 1-1 on 18 July 2020 in Serie A, goals from Zapata for the Atalanta lead and equalizer from Pessina.

DID YOU KNOW?

The only scudetto won in Verona's history, the 1984/85 season, saw the mathematical confirmation on 12 May 1985, penultimate matchday of the season, precisely against Atalanta, in Bergamo. It was 1-1 with goals from Perico for the home side and Elkjaer Larsen scoring the equalizer that was worth the title. At the Bentegodi, one of the two teams in Serie A 2025/26 that has the fewest different goalscorers (5 for Verona, like Parma) and one of the 4 that has the most (11 different scorers for Atalanta, like Inter, Bologna, and Juventus).

COACHES and PLAYERS

Between Paolo Zanetti and Raffaele Palladino, this is the sixth official encounter: no draws in the 5 previous ones, 3 victories in favor of the nerazzurro coach against 2 for the gialloblù coach. Paolo Zanetti is the ex-player of the day: he wore, as a player, the Atalanta nerazzurra shirt 2 times, in January 2010. With the goal scored against Genoa (first in Serie A), Rafik Belghali has become the fifth Algerian player to score in the history of our top championship. Top scorer, with 7 goals, Ismael Bennacer.

DISCIPLINE

Suspended: Gagliardini (Hellas Verona) Cautioned: Belghali, Akpa Akpro (Verona)

REFEREE

MARIANI (ROSSI L. – BIFFI) IV: COLLU, VAR: AURELIANO, AVAR: GHERSINI

UPCOMING MATCHES IN SERIE A

Fiorentina-Verona (Sunday, December 14, 15.00 CET) Atalanta-Cagliari (Saturday, December 13, 20.45 CET) (Photo Getty Images)