Verona (Italy), Oct 21 (IANS) Atalanta demolished hosts Chievo Verona 5-1 on Sunday, thanks in part to a hat-trick from Slovenia playmaker Josip Ilicic.
The loss extended Chievo’s winless drought to nine matches and spoiled the debut of new head coach Giampiero Ventura, known for having recently led the Italian national team that failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reports Efe.
Ventura was appointed earlier this month to succeed Lorenzo D’Anna, who was sacked due to bad results.
Dutch midfielder Marten de Roon opened the scoring for Atalanta 25 minutes into the match, followed three minutes later by Ilicic’s first goal.
Chievo’s situation even got worse when defender Federico Barba was booked for the second time and sent off the pitch five minutes before first half stoppage time.
After the break, Ilicic scored back-to-back goals in the 50th and 52nd minutes, while German midfielder Robin Gosens scored the fifth goal 20 minutes later.
Avoiding a total rout, Chievo’s Finnish midfielder Perparim Hetemaj converted a penalty to score his side’s lone goal in the 84th minute.
With this win, Atalanta climbed to the 14th place in the Serie A standings with nine points.
Chievo remains stuck in last place with negative one point, due to a Serie A decision to deduct three points from the club at the start of the season after it was caught falsifying its financial accounting.
–IANS
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