UECL | Atalanta 1-1 Kairat Almaty: Dea crisis drags on with meagre point

The Atalanta wait for a victory drags on to seven matches, as they scraped a 1-1 draw with Kairat Almaty in the Conference League thanks to Nikola Krstovic.

La Dea were in crisis after scraping two draws from six competitive games, culminating in a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to Parma on Monday, so went into a three-day training retreat to prepare for this match. Thomas Kristensen, Gianluca Gaetano, Raoul Bellanova, Franck Kessie, Sead Kolasinac, Isak Hien, Giacomo Raspadori and Odilon Kossounou were injured, so youth team defender Javison Idele made his first start. They beat Pafos 3-1, but then lost 2-0 away to Ajax in this tournament.

Kairat Almaty dropped out of the Champions League and Europa League preliminary rounds after winning the Kazakhstan title, drawing at Riga and losing 5-1 to Panathinaikos in the Conference League. Striker Jorginho had been out since July with a torn ACL, but this was only their second game under caretaker manager Zhora Arutyunyan.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Jonathan Rowe stung the goalkeeper’s gloves from the edge of the area, then nodded over as the move continued.

Kairat almost scored a comical own goal when Damir Kassabulat didn’t look at his goalkeeper for a back pass, dribbling it wide of an open goal after 11 minutes.

A ferocious Rowe strike from outside the box was acrobatically palmed out from under the bar, while Marco Carnesecchi needed a double save on Alexandr Mrynskiy and the Gustavo Mendonca follow-up.

Atalanta should’ve taken the lead on the half-hour with a well-worked passing move, but Mario Pasalic only grazed the outside of the near post from close range.

La Dea were caught out on a classic counter-attack with an Edmilson pass from the centre-circle to send Marc Gual running against two defenders, beating the on-rushing Carnesecchi.

Idele couldn’t keep the volley down from seven yards on the Nicola Zalewski cross, while when Eljif Elmas did have the ball in the net on 65 minutes, he was offside to redirect the wayward Zalewski strike.

Elmas put real power behind his curling attempt from the edge of the box, forcing a flying save from the Kairat Almaty goalkeeper.

There was another tough save on the Ederson half-volley from close range and Atalanta equalised on the resulting flapped corner, as it was knocked back from the by-line by Relja Obric for Nikola Krstovic to bundle over the line from six yards.

Atalanta pushed to the bitter end and had a huge chance to win it in stoppages, but Mario Pasalic couldn’t keep the finish on target.

Marc Gual 53 (K), Krstovic 82 (A)

29 Marco Carnesecchi Goalkeeper

42 Giorgio Scalvini Defender

47 Lorenzo Bernasconi Defender 74'

40 Relja Obric Defender

99 Eljif Elmas Midfielder

41 Javison Idele Midfielder

11 Jonathan Rowe Midfielder 58'

7 Kamaldeen Sulemana Midfielder 46'

10 Lazar Samardžić Midfielder 58'

8 Mario Pasalic Midfielder

9 Gianluca Scamacca Attacker 67'

1 Temirlan Anarbekov Goalkeeper

14 Aleksandr Martynovich Defender

24 Aleksandr Mrynskiy Defender

25 Aleksandr Shirobokov Defender

4 Damir Kasabulat Defender 82'

3 Luís Mata Defender

22 Gustavo Mendonça Midfielder 82'

13 Jaakko Oksanen Midfielder

17 Azamat Tuyakbaev Attacker 62'

9 Edmilson Attacker 63'

28 Marc Gual Attacker 73'

57 Marco Sportiello Goalkeeper

56 Albert Navarro Defender

44 Federico Steffanoni Midfielder

46 Sergej Levak Midfielder

51 Mattia Sonzogni Goalkeeper

55 Isaac Isoa Defender

13 Éderson Midfielder 46'

59 Nicola Zalewski Midfielder 58'

17 Charles De Ketelaere Attacker 58'

90 Nikola Krstovic Attacker 67'

77 Davide Zappacosta Defender 74'

5 Lev Kurgin Defender

82 Sherkhan Kalmurza Goalkeeper

15 Mansur Birkurmanov Attacker

19 Oiva Jukkola Attacker 62'

81 Ismail Bekbolat Attacker 63'

20 Erkin Tapalov Midfielder 73'

6 Adilet Sadybekov Midfielder 82'

8 Olzhas Baybek Midfielder 82'