Super Eagles star forward Ademola Lookman was in action for Atalanta, who were held to a 1-1 draw Como in the Serie A on Saturday.
Lookman was brought in for his first Serie A start of the season after his appearance in the 2-1 victory over Club Brugge in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
He was later replaced with less than 20 minutes left to play.
La Dea, in an injury crisis, only had seven substitutes on the bench, including two goalkeepers, and were without the likes of Charles De Ketelaere and Gianluca Scamacca in attack, plus Raoul Bellanova, Odilon Kossounou, Giorgio Scalvini and Sead Kolasinac at the back. Cesc Fabregas, who was suspended on Saturday, opted to hand a first league start to €25m summer signing Martin Baturina, alongside Nico Paz, Jayden Addai and Anastasios Douvikas.
It took just six minutes for the deadlock to be broken in Bergamo: Lazar Samardzic stepping up with his first Serie A goal since last October.
The Serbian played a tidy one-two with Ederson in the area before slotting home for his second goal in four days.
Parity was restored just before the 20th minute mark when Maxi Perrone’s shot-come-cross struck the far post from an improbable angle. Marco Carnesecchi appeared to have clawed it onto the crossbar, but goalline technology confirmed that the ball had crossed the line before the goalkeeper’s intervention.
Though Como came out brightly after the interval, they, and the hosts, were lacking in clear cut opportunities in the second half: There were just one shot on target from each side in the second period.
Lookman had the closer of those efforts, playing a quick free-kick and then a one-two with Kamaldeen Sulemana, who played a low cross back in for the Nigeria international in the middle. Como had numbers back, though, and were able to hook clear.
Tonight’s result means that the two teams are still separated by just one point in the Serie A table, with Atalanta in sixth on 10 points and Como in seventh with nine.
