Italy
Serie A
Sunday 4th June 2023
Kick Off 21.00 Actual 21.02
Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio 5 Associazione Calcio Monza 2, attendance 19,389
12’ 1-0
45’ + 1, 2-0
51’ 2-1
74’ 3-1
78’ 4-1
81’ 4-2
90’ + 2, 5-2
@ Gewiss Stadium
Viale Giulio Cesare 18
24124 Bergamo
€40 Admission + €2.20 booking fee, Print at Home Ticket
2 different Programmes available, both free. A 36 page full colour Magazine and a 40 page Newspaper.
My first trip to see football in Italy was back in November 1994, when I flew out on a day trip to see A.C. Milan draw 1-1 with Internazionale in the Milan derby, played at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, more commonly known as the San Siro, which is actually the area of Milan it is in, rather than the name of the stadium. Further trips to Italy saw a 2-1 win for Lazio versus Internazionale (Dec 2003), followed by Torino v Empoli (at the now demolished Stadio delle Alpi (Apr 2005) and the following day Novarra v A.C. Pisa. A month later a trip to Florence resulted in my third consecutive 0-0 draw in Italy, when Fiorentina hosted Atalanta. The lack of goals and what always seemed to be problems sorting out tickets in advance, meant I had pretty much given up with football trips to Italy.
However, a wedding invitation to a ceremony to be held near Milan, meant there was a possibility of perhaps combining the trip to fit in a football match as well. Being late in the season didn’t throw up too many opportunities though. Not knowing exactly what time the wedding reception would finish, meant both Cremonese and Parma would not be possible on the Saturday evening, due to ticket sales ending on the night before the match. This removed the option of making a late decision to head there. Luckily though, there was still a chance to get a game in on the Sunday, in nearby Bergamo. It was only 1 hour 8 minutes by train and cost just €5.80 single….not a return, but more of that later. These days obtaining tickets for games in Italy is far less problematic. All done online and the club website confirmed tickets were available for general sale and that a foreign passport was okay for use as identification. It would also help to confirm we weren’t from Monza!
The Gewiss Stadium is part way through modernisation, with just the Curva Sud now looking out of place compared to the rest of the ground, although they could do with extending the roof along the side, as we got absolutely soaked during the second half, which isn’t great when you are charged €40 for the pleasure! Capacity here is 21,300 and the club were advertising the match as a sell out (I think Monza had sold all bar 145 of their allocation) although there were empty seats dotted about and the official attendance certainly didn’t suggest this.
This was the last match of the season. Monza were safe in tenth place and had nothing to play for. Atalanta, on the other hand, started the day 5th in the table on 61 points. They were in a three way fight with Roma (60 pts) and Juventus (59 pts) to see which two would get the Europa League places and who would end up in the Europa Conference League. All three games involving them would start simultaneously…or at least that was the plan. The game here started a couple of minutes late as the Referee had to wait for the smoke to clear the pitch after flares left thick clouds of smoke swirling across the pitch as we were about to kick off. Security are red hot on stopping you take bottles of water into the ground and there is no way you are allowed to keep the top on any drink purchased once inside, but it seems you can take in as many flares as you like, as well as 4-5 foot long flag poles, which of course, could never be used as a weapon….
As expected, it was a great atmosphere. The home fans in the lower sections of seating behind the goal at the north end of the ground boycotted the opening five minutes or so, not happy in how they perceived they were being treated, but soon filtered into their seats. The noise certainly went up a notch or two as they joined the party. Dutch striker Teun Koopmeiners headed Atalanta in front after twelve minutes and he made it 2-0 in stoppage time at the end of the first half, following in after an initial save by the ‘keeper. A cracking 20 yarder into the top corner saw Monza pull it back to 2-1 early in the second half, but their hopes of getting anything from the match were dealt a blow, when their Brazilian player Marlon received a red card in the seventieth minute, just 60 seconds after coming on as a substitute! Hojlund (assisted by Koopmeiners) made it 3-1, before Koopmeiners completed his hattrick with twelve minutes left to put the hosts 4-1 up. Monza immediately got one back to make it 4-2, before Atalanta added a fifth goal in the second, of what turned out to be ten minutes of stoppage time, rounding off the scoring. So Atalanta had scored the same amount of goals tonight as my previous five games here in Italy had produced in total!
The win saw Atalanta finish fifth and wins for Roma and Juventus meant we finished the night as we started, as far as European qualification went. The 21.00 kick off meant that the last train back to Milan would be long gone, so we had pre-booked a car to pick us up near the ground at 23.15, rather than mess about getting back to Bergamo Airport, from where a shuttle bus runs to Milan Central Station at very regular intervals throughout the night. Another taxi would then have been required from there. No change out of €100, but back in our Milan hotel before midnight, so certainly the correct decision.
