Still hanging on slim European hopes, Atalanta look to end their miserable campaign in a style when they welcome Empoli to Gewiss Stadium for their final Serie A Matchday on Saturday night with kickoff at 21:45.
Atalanta made a fine start to the 2021-22 Serie A campaign with the side spending most of the first half of the season in the top-four places. However, Gian Piero Gasperini’s side run out of steam along the way as a series of poor results soon had them drop down and they now head into the final fixture of the season in eighth on 59 points.
They are level on points with the seventh-placed Fiorentina, who occupy the last European spot, while are just a point behind sixth-placed Roma. They therefore still have a chance of finishing their miserable campaign in the European places.
A win or draw could be enough to earn them a spot in the coveted European spots, but they will need Fiorentina or Roma to drop points in their respective final fixtures. Atalanta are coming off a 2-0 away loss to Milan, which denied them a chance to break into the top six. They will be looking to bounce back to winning ways here and they will draw confidence from their 4-1 win over Empoli in the reverse fixture earlier this season.
Empoli on the other hand, despite recording an inconsistent campaign they will be happy with where they are now in the Serie A standings. Empoli who earned their promotion to top tier this season, currently sit 14th with 38 points from 37 matches, nine points above the relegation zone.
At worst, Empoli will finish the season in 16th, therefore they have nothing to fight for in the Saturday clash, although they will want to finish the campaign on a style. They head into the match in a poor form though having only won one of their last five league matches and are coming off a 1-1 draw against Salernitana which ended back-to-back defeats.
Atalanta vs Empoli head to head
Both sides have met in 21 encounters since 1997 with Atalanta claiming seven victories while Empoli have claimed five victories and there have been nine draws.
- Empoli 1-4 Atalanta 17/10/21
- Atalanta 0-0 Empoli 15/04/19
- Empoli 3-2 Atalanta 25/11/18
- Empoli 0-1 Atalanta 21/05/17
- Atalanta 2-1 Empoli 20/12/16
Home
- Milan 2-0 Atalanta
- Spezia 1-3 Atalanta
- Atalanta 1-1 Salernitana
- Atalanta 4-4 Torino
- Venezia 1-3 Atalanta
Away
- Empoli 1-3 Ukraine
- Empoli 1-1 Salernitana
- Inter 4-2 Empoli
- Empoli 1-3 Torino
- Empoli 3-2 Napoli
Atalanta team news
Atalanta will be without Josip Ilicic, Giuseppe Pezzella, Rafael Toloi and Luis Muriel due to injury, while Ruslan Malinovskyi will miss through suspension.
Empoli team news
Empoli will be without Nicolas Haas, Riccardo Marchizza and Lorenzo Tonelli due to injury while Federico Di Francesco is a doubt.
Prediction and odds
- Atalanta win
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 2.5
