This weekend's game is presented by DigitalBits!

ATALANTA

League position: 5th
Head coach: Gian Piero Gasperini
Serie A top-scorer: Duvan Zapata, Mario Pasalic (nine)

RECENT FORM

ROMA: D L D D W
ATALANTA: D W L W W

The Giallorossi ended a four-game wait for a win in all comps thanks to Tammy Abraham’s last-gasp penalty that finally broke the resistance of Spezia last Sunday.

That victory took Roma into sixth-place and victory will draw them level with Atalanta, but they must do so without coach Jose Mourinho - who has to watch on from the stands as he continues to serve a touchline suspension.

La Dea, meanwhile, ended an even longer wait for a league win - five games - by beating Sampdoria 4-0 on Matchday 27.

They are also missing a key figure at the Olimpico, with captain Rafael Toloi sitting out the trip to the capital having picked up a fifth yellow card of the season last time out.

Possible Atalanta line-up

(4-3-3)

Musso; Djimsiti, Demiral, Palomino; Hateboer, Freuler, Koopmeiners, De Roon, Maehle; Muriel, Pasalic

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Mario Pasalic

With Atalanta having to make do without the services of Josip Ilicic, Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata at various parts of the season, Pasalic has most certainly stepped up.

So much so that the Croatia international has scored nine times and laid on five assists for his teammates thus far this term.

Pasalic started up front last time out but with Muriel back in action, it should allow the 27-year-old to either drop in behind the Colombian or out wide in a front-three.

The uncertainty over where Pasalic lines up is largely down to Toloi’s injury that means Gasperini could keep his back-four in place but, regardless, the Croatian will be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

MATCH STATS

Having gone seven games without beating Atalanta, Roma comprehensively won the reverse and are going in search of a first league double over the Bergamo outfit since the 2012-13 campaign.

Mourinho’s side are unbeaten in six Serie A games (W3, D3); their longest such run under the Portuguese coach and best sequence without defeat since November 2020.

Atalanta have failed to score in three of their last four top-flight matches on the road, including each of their last two.

With five goals each, these two sides have found the back of the net after 90 minutes more than any other teams in the division and their injury-time strikes account for 21 percent of the league’s 48 in total.

PLAYER STATS

• Henrikh Mkhitaryan is one game away from making his 250th appearance across Europe’s top-five leagues.
  
• No player has scored more Serie A goals than Tammy Abraham in 2022, with the Englishman chalking up six in eight appearances since the turn of the New Year.
  
• Pasalic has been involved in four goals against Roma in Serie A (two goals, two assists).
  
• Davide Zappacosta made nine appearances for the Giallorossi during a loan spell across the 2019-20 season.

WHAT THEY SAID

“We will continue to play our games trying to do the best possible things. We’ve had serious absences in attack but we’ve never made an excuse out of this.”

- Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini talking about his depleted attack recently