Atalanta 2-1 Club Brugge: Samardzic and Pasalic complete fine turnaround

Lazar Samardzic and Mario Pasalic were on target as Atalanta produced a late comeback to beat Club Brugge 2-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Christos Tzolis’ well-executed opener had the visitors ahead by the break at New Balance Arena but Brugge were denied making it two wins from two in the league phase as the hosts fought back to rebound from a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain.

Lorenzo Bernasconi trickled a volley just wide in what proved Atalanta’s best effort of a first half in which they failed to register a shot on target.

Brugge were pretty shot-shy themselves but Tzolis had already sent one effort over the crossbar before he curled a fine strike into the bottom-right corner from just outside the area.

Tzolis tested home goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi early in the second half, while half-time substitute Davide Zappacosta dragged wide after bringing it down out of the air.

Atalanta found a way back into the game when visiting goalkeeper Nordin Jackers upended Pasalic when trying to palm away the ball and Samardzic coolly sent him the wrong way with an effort into the right corner.

Hugo Vetlesen nearly put the visitors straight back in front but he shot narrowly wide after pouncing on Carnesecchi’s error.

And that was punished when Pasalic nodded in from a well-worked Atalanta corner routine with just three minutes to play.