A double assist from Brandon Soppy allowed Atalanta to defeat Sassuolo on Saturday night and continue their surprise Scudetto challenge, as we awarded the youngster Serie A Player of the Week for Matchday 10.
La Dea had fallen behind to a wonderful strike by Giorgos Kyriakopoulos on 41 minutes, but goals from Mario Pasalic and Ademola Lookman secured a 2-1 victory at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.
Nerazzurri on a roll
Although Gian Piero Gasperini’s team have now recorded six consecutive home wins over the Neroverdi, 24 points from the first 10 Serie A fixtures is a new record for the Nerazzurri. While it is the first time since 1961/62 that the club have won seven of those opening 10 matches.
Having also won back-to-back home games for the first time since defeating Spezia and Venezia in November 2021, Atalanta look ready to stay the distance in the title chase this term.
Influential Soppy
After a season in Serie A with Udinese, Soppy looks set for an influential role at La Dea after arriving during the summer transfer window, with Gasperini looking for greater strength and depth in crucial wing-back areas, and the 20-year-old certainly did against Sassuolo.
With the hosts looking set to go into half-time 1-0 down, it was Soppy that laid the ball off to Pasalic to fire the ball past Andrea Consigli in injury time. Then, immediately after the restart, the former Rennes youth played an instinctive through-ball to Lookman, who cut inside a defender and curled into the top corner.
Soppy became the first Atalanta player to register two assists in the same game since Luis Muriel achieved the feat against Torino on 27 April 2022.
