Nikola Krstovic came off the bench to rescue a point for Atalanta as Maurizio Sarri's side scraped a 1-1 draw with Kairat Almaty in Bergamo, but a seventh match without a win in all competitions only deepened the crisis around La Dea.
Atalanta knew anything less than victory against the Kazakh champions would be unacceptable. They ended the night relieved simply to have avoided defeat, after Marc Gual's second-half strike threatened one of the great Conference League upsets and Mario Pasalic passed up a glorious chance to win it at the death.
Gual silences Bergamo as Atalanta labour
For all their possession — 62 per cent of it across the 90 minutes — Atalanta spent the first half going nowhere slowly. Jonathan Rowe twice tested Temirlan Anarbekov from distance, Lazar Samardzic drew a low save from the Kairat goalkeeper, and Giorgio Scalvini headed wide from a corner, but the New Balance Arena grew restless long before the interval. The full match timeline is available in the Sky Sports match commentary, and it tells the story of a home side huffing without ever truly convincing.
Kairat, to their credit, were never passengers. Marco Carnesecchi had to save from Aleksandr Mrynskiy and Gustavo Mendonca in the same first-half spell, and eight minutes after the restart the visitors struck. Edmilson released Marc Gual on a fast break and the Spanish striker finished left-footed into the bottom corner to put Kairat 1-0 up and leave Bergamo stunned.
Sarri turned to his bench. Ederson had already replaced Kamaldeen Sulemana at half-time, Charles De Ketelaere and Nicola Zalewski followed, and on 67 minutes Krstovic replaced the booked and frustrated Gianluca Scamacca. The Montenegro striker headed wide within a minute of coming on, Eljif Elmas forced a flying save from Anarbekov, and Ederson's volley drew another stop at the near post as the pressure finally became relentless, as the Football Italia liveblog recorded minute by minute.
The equaliser arrived on 82 minutes and it was scruffy, which felt appropriate. Zalewski's corner was flapped at by Anarbekov, young defender Relja Obric knocked the ball back from the by-line, and Krstovic turned it in from six yards for his first European goal of the season. Atalanta poured forward for a winner and should have had one in the fifth minute of added time, only for Pasalic — the wrong man in the wrong place — to fire off target from the centre of the box.
Sarri's problems keep mounting
The context makes grim reading. Atalanta arrived at this game with two draws from five competitive matches and, by Football Italia's count, just two points taken from their previous six outings, a run that includes the 2-0 Conference League defeat at Ajax and Monday's humiliating 3-0 home loss to Parma — a night covered in our report on Parma's stunning 3-0 win in Bergamo. The injury list remains brutal: Odilon Kossounou, Isak Hien, Sead Kolasinac, Thomas Kristensen, Raoul Bellanova, Franck Kessie, Gianluca Gaetano and Giacomo Raspadori were all unavailable, forcing Sarri to start two youth-team defenders, Obric and Javison Idele, in a European fixture.
There were seven bookings in a fractious game — Mendonca, Sulemana, Obric and Scamacca among them before a late flurry of Kairat cards as the visitors protected their point — but no red cards and no penalties, just an Italian side running out of ideas against opponents who defended their box superbly and countered with real menace.
So what does this draw actually mean?
Atalanta move to four points from three Conference League matches, having beaten Pafos, lost at Ajax and now drawn at home to the side that began the night 31st in the standings. That is not a fatal position, but it leaves Sarri's team with no margin for error in the second half of the league phase, starting with a trip to face Borac Banja Luka, who lost 2-0 to Mjallby tonight. Kairat, meanwhile, double their points tally to two and leave Italy with a result their supporters will talk about for years — proof that organisation, a brave goalkeeper and one clinical counter-attack can still humble a Serie A name in Europe.
For Sarri, the numbers are becoming impossible to ignore: seven games without a win, a squad stretched to breaking point and a home crowd that has now watched Parma and Kairat leave Bergamo with results in the space of four days.
Beyond the Final Whistle verdict: A point rescued is not a corner turned. Krstovic's equaliser spared Sarri the worst headline of his reign, but Atalanta were out-thought for long spells by the Kazakh champions and the manager is running out of credit. If the winless run reaches eight, the questions in Bergamo will become demands. Can Sarri survive until the injured cavalry returns — and did Kairat just show every smaller side in this competition the blueprint for embarrassing La Dea? Let us know what you think in the comments.
