In the early morning of May 19, Beijing time, the 37th round of Serie A was played by Atalanta away against Lecce. In the end, Atalanta defeated Lecce 2-0 to complete the season double, and at the same time reached 66 points, because of the advantage of winning and losing, two rounds ahead of Roma to lock up the fifth place in the standings, to ensure the qualification for next season's Champions League.
In recent years, Atalanta has been firmly in the top six of Serie A and has become a regular in European competition. Nine days ago, Atalanta advanced to the Europa League final after knocking out Marseille, and for the first time in their history, they were just one win away from their first title.
Back on the domestic stage, Atalanta missed out on the Coppa Italia title but are in a good position to finish in the top five, extending their lead to three points after beating Roma in the previous round and just one win away from securing Champions League qualification for next season.
In the first half, Atalanta had the advantage and could not score.
In the 48th minute of the second half, De Ketelaere stepped forward to hold the defender and pushed the goal to help Atalanta break the deadlock 1-0.
In the 53rd minute, Milanchuk sent a corner kick, and Scamacca completed the header to help Atalanta extend the score 2-0.
After the win, Atalanta's points reached 66 points, 6 points away from sixth-ranked Roma, due to the advantage of home and away wins, Atalanta locked fifth in advance, plus an additional Champions League place in Serie A, so Atalanta won the Champions League ticket next season two rounds in advance.
According to statistics, this is the fourth time in the history of Atalanta to qualify for the Champions League, the previous three are: advancing to the quarterfinals in the 2019-20 season, breaking into the round of 16 in the 2020-21 season, and stopping in the group stage in the 2021-22 season.
The Atlanta club is located in Bergamo in northern Italy, a tiny city of just 120,000 people, and in many cases more than a fifth of the people travel to support the team.
After securing early qualification for next season's Champions League, Atalanta will have no pressure to go into next week's Europa League final and will face Bayer Leverkusen for the title.
Now that the Bundesliga season has ended, Bayer Leverkusen won the title with 34 rounds of unbeaten and 51 consecutive games unbeaten in all competitions, Atalanta want to play in the Champions League next season with six Serie A teams, and must beat Bayer Leverkusen to win the Europa League, so that the sixth-placed team in the league can also compete in the Champions League.