UEL RO16 1st leg – Sporting CP v Atalanta: the stats of the game ...

As the first leg of the 2023-2024 UEFA Europa League RO16 1st leg game against Sporting CP culminated in a 1-1 draw in Lisbon, Atalanta have gone unbeaten for 7th consecutive game in the current run of the European championship. As pointed out by Stats Perform’s Opta Facts, only once before in the history of the Club, have Atalanta played as many European games without knowing defeat: namely, in the 1990/91 UEFA Cup, when the Nerazzurri’s unbeaten run lasted from September 1990 to March 1991 (preliminary rounds excluded).

Thanks to his equaliser in the Alvalade game, Gianluca Scamacca has now become the Italian player with the highest tally (7 in total) of goals scored in European competitions, including preliminary matches, in the last two sporting seasons (2022/23 and 2023/24). With a grand total of 11 goals (namely, 8 nets and 3 assists) favoured in all competitions, the only Italian footballers currently playing in the Serie A capable of flaunting better scoring figures thus far this season are Dimarco, Politano, Berardi and Pellegrini (all tied with 12).

Delivering yet another key pass, Aleksey Miranchuk has now dished out his fourth assist in all competition ever since the start of 2024: out of all Serie A players, only Weston McKennie (five) and Théo Hernández (seven) have been better wingmen than Lesha within the same timespan. Additionally,  Aleksey has now matched his previous personal best as assist provider -namely, the six key passes given back in the 2021-2022 season.

The match also marked a new personal milestone for captain Marten de Roon: with the Alvalade match being his 331st game in all competitions donning the Atalanta shirt, the Oranje midfielder has now waylaid Valter Bonacina as the second most capped Atalantino, only behind recordholder Gianpaolo Bellini with 435 caps.

Lastly, the Lisbon clash was Isak Hien and El Bilal Touré’s  first-ever Atalanta appearance in a European competition.