Claudio Ranieri couldn‘t ignore the call from his former club and decided to come out of retirement and sit in the dugout again, this time until the end of the season. But Roma is in a mess and he will need some time to put things right. The veteran coach got more than a warm reception from Roma fans in his first game in charge at the Olympico, but the night ended in disaster. Not only the Giallorossi lost the game, but they conceded the first goal by accident and the second one was scored by the most hated man – Nicolo Zaniolo. Even without coach Gian Piero Gasperini (suspended for offending the referee last week), Atalanta managed to secure a win, and with their eight consecutive win in Serie A, they are candidates for Serie A title. They sit in the second place, with only one point behind league leaders Napoli, but what‘s more encouraging is their display. Atalanta also boasts the league‘s best attack (36 goals in 14 matches), and didn‘t lose to Roma in their 11 away games.Goal Marten de RoonRoma 0-1 Atalanta pic.twitter.com/eqdMEaaDx3— Toni (@Footballfan0088) December 2, 2024 On the other side, Giallorossi are now in 15th place and are two points above the relegation zone. To be fair to Ranieri, he only came a few weeks ago and the schedule was not a light one: he played against league leaders Napoli first and then tonight against the second-placed Atalanta. This is their fourth consecutive defeat, the first one after 16 years. The home team did create two good chances, but that was not the required amount against the high-flying Atalanta, who luckily scored the first goal. But the ‘cold shower‘ came at the end of the match, when Nicolo Zaniolo came in as a sub. The player projected to be the new Roma leader had a bitter split with the club during Jose Mourinho era, but came back to Italy after a bad spell in Aston Villa and scored the second goal of the game.Goal Zaniolo 89′ Roma 0 – [2] Atalanta – pic.twitter.com/3m5jBBwt4S— Toni (@Footballfan0088) December 2, 2024 Roma started the match with two long distance shots, both very good. First it was Paredes in the 5th minute (but Carnesecchi dived and sends it to the corner) and eight minutes later, Kone tried his luck from almost 30 meters and the ball whistled near the post. Lookman scored a goal for Atalanta in the 22nd minute, but the referee nullified it due to offside position. Second half looked promising for the home team as Dybala did his magic and passed the ball to Dovbyk, who faced Carnesecchi all by himself, but nearly missed the ball. That was the best chance in the whole match, but when he missed it, the ‘punishment‘ soon came. In the 69th minute, after one attack, De Roon took a shot which would be easily tamed by Roma‘s Svilar, but the ball hit Zeki Celik, changed direction totally and ended up in the net. Ranieri tried to make some changes, but nothing worked and to make things, worse, the guests scored the second one through Zaniolo.SERIE A – MATCHDAY 14Friday Cagliari – Verona 1-0 (0-0)/Piccoli 75/Saturday Como – Monza 1-1 (1-0)/Engelhardt 36 – Caprari 53 pen/Milan – Empoli 3-0 (2-0)/Morata 19, Reijnders 44, 69/Bologna – Venezia 3-0 (1-0)/Ndoye 21 pen, 71, Orsolini 69 pen/SundayUdinese – Genoa 0-2 (0-1)/Pinamonti 13, Giannetti 68 og/Parma – Lazio 3-1 (1-0)/Man 6, Haj Mohamed 53 – Castellanos 81/Torino – Napoli 0-1 (0-1)/McTominay 31/Fiorentina – Inter – suspendedLecce – Juventus 1-1 (0-0)/Rebic 90+3 – Cambiaso 68/Monday Roma – Atalanta 1-0 (0-0)/De Roon 69/
