The striker struck in the 49th minute, reacting after Semuel Törnqvist parried Nicola Zalewski’s delivery, to give Maurizio Sarri’s side their first away league win. Sarri admitted his team need to become more clinical.
“We were coming off two matches in which we created 18 goalscoring opportunities but didn’t score,” the Atalanta coach said. “This time, fortunately, things went differently. The next step must certainly be to make better use of the chances we create.”
Monza threatened before the interval, with Marco Carnesecchi producing a sequence of saves to deny Gustavo Varela, Jay Robinson and the hosts. Sarri acknowledged his players had initially struggled to execute their plan.
“In the opening phase we paid for our nervousness; the team was tense and wasn’t doing what we had prepared,” he said. “Once we scored, we started to play football and had chances to extend the result. The team understood that there was space to exploit and became more fluid in the second half, as soon as it regained confidence.”
Sarri also revealed that Atalanta had taken risks in bringing back Sead Kolašinac and Franck Kessié, whose fitness remained limited. “Their recoveries were medically cleared, but their physical efficiency was still very limited. We forced the recovery of both Kolašinac and Kessié.”
The coach said the victory mattered after a demanding spell with a depleted squad. “We have played many matches in a few days with 10 players unavailable, and we have run the few available players into the ground. We have 17 or 18 players. We hope some injured players can return during the break.”
Monza coach Ivan Jurić was left frustrated after his side failed to turn a strong first half into points. “There is enormous disappointment with the result. We created plenty of situations but lacked the final pass. There was a physical drop-off, although we managed to react with the substitutions. We were close to equalising.”
Jurić added: “It would be nice to maintain the level of the first half throughout the match, but not everyone can do that yet. We will get there with time. We need to manage 100 minutes at the level we showed before the break.”
Jurić also accepted his late dismissal after a confrontation with the fourth official. “The red card was deserved, but I didn’t like his behaviour towards me. He approached me aggressively.”