In Bergamo on Wednesday night, AC Milan suffered a setback to
their Serie A revival, as they went down 2-1 to Atalanta. Carlo Ancelotti opted
to keep Ronaldo in reserve from the start, and his decision to bring him on just
after the hour mark came too late to change the course of the game.
The match had originally been scheduled to be played in November and was due to
mark Ronaldo’s initial comeback from injury. However, it had been abandoned
after just seven minutes, when sections of the Atalanta support reacted angrily
to the decision to allow the game to go ahead, after news that a Lazio fan had
been killed.
Despite a starring role in the Rossoneri’s previous two Serie A matches, Ronaldo
started on the bench. And although Milan opened the scoring with a 16th minute
effort from Gennaro Gattuso, they appeared to miss the Brazilian’s cutting edge
up front.
Atalanta responded with an equaliser from Antonio Langella just before half-time.
After the break Ancelotti attempted to reinvigorate his side, bringing on
Ronaldo to replace his young compatriot Alexandre Pato for the last 27 minutes.
However, the Phenomenon was given few opportunities to restore the Rossoneri’s
lead. The home side, meanwhile, continued to create chances, and on 68 minutes
they claimed the winner through Fernando Tissone.
The result lifts Atalanta into fifth place, while AC Milan remain ninth, though
still with two games in hand on the teams above them. |