Even though the league’s top scorer was not in the starting lineup, Atalanta surprised everyone by defeating Serie A leaders Napoli 3-0 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Sunday.
Mateo Retegui was unexpectedly left on the bench, but Ademola Lookman scored two goals in the first half, handing Napoli only their second loss of the season and their first since the very first game.
Retegui came on with 14 minutes to go and scored in stoppage time, marking his 11th goal in as many matches.
Atalanta moved up to second place, but they could be overtaken by Inter Milan if the defending champions win against Venezia later, reducing the gap to Napoli to just one point.
Napoli will play against Inter next weekend.
Atalanta’s coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, made the surprising choice to sit Retegui. This decision was made because he wanted a less predictable attack against a Napoli defense that had kept clean sheets in six of its last seven games and had only allowed five goals all season.
Instead, Gasperini chose Lookman and Charles De Ketelaere to lead the attack, with Mario Pasalic supporting them, and it paid off quickly as Atalanta scored just 10 minutes into the match.
A cross from Napoli was cleared but only reached the edge of the area, where it was sent back in. De Ketelaere then headed it back for Lookman, who finished by slotting it into the near bottom corner.
Napoli nearly equalized right away, but Scott McTominay’s powerful shot hit the right post.
The Atalanta forwards teamed up again in the 31st minute as De Ketelaere sprinted down the right, squeezed past two defenders, and passed it to Lookman, who fired a hard shot into the far bottom corner.
Sead Kolasinac thought he had added to Atalanta’s lead early in the second half, but the defender was called offside.
Retegui came on for De Ketelaere late in the match and volleyed a cross into the bottom right corner.
Fiorentina can move into third place with a win against Torino later, while Roma was playing at Hellas Verona.
