Atalanta will visit Cagliari in Serie A on Monday, and Marco Pašalić — who scored a late equaliser for Atalanta in their Coppa Italia semi‑final on Wednesday evening — is among the players pushing to start.
Atalanta arrived in Bergamo on Wednesday night only to lose the Coppa Italia semi‑final to Lazio on penalties, falling 2-1 in the shootout after 120 minutes. The result came after Pašalić’s late intervention had forced extra time, and it followed a 1-1 Serie A draw with Roma that left Atalanta nine points off the top four.
The numbers behind Monday’s match give Atalanta cause for cautious optimism. They have lost just one of their last nine away league fixtures and have won five of their last six visits to Sardinia. In the reverse fixture in December 2025, Gianluca Scamacca scored a brace against Cagliari, and Scamacca is now a name being considered for a start as coach Raffaele Palladino weighs selection between him and top scorer Nikola Krstović.
Cagliari’s recent form is messy enough to make the home crowd nervous. The club has won just one of its last 10 matches — that solitary victory came against Cremonese — and last week they were beaten 3-0 by Inter at San Siro. Still, earlier in the season Cagliari produced three consecutive Serie A wins over Juventus, Fiorentina and Hellas Verona, and they remain five points above the bottom three with five games remaining after the Inter defeat.
The context is straightforward: Atalanta are hunting European qualification after missing out on the Coppa Italia final, while Cagliari are fighting to stay clear of the relegation places with five league matches left. Those competing priorities shape selection questions — Pašalić, Giacomo Raspadori and Raoul Bellanova are all in the mix to start for Atalanta, while Palladino may freshen his attack by switching Scamacca in for Krstović.
The tension is immediate. Atalanta’s midweek exit on penalties in Bergamo required 120 minutes of play and a shootout that ended 2-1, and those minutes could force rotation on Monday or blunt the side’s sharpness. Cagliari, meanwhile, can point to wins over big clubs earlier in the season but sit on a run of one victory in 10 matches and a heavy loss at San Siro last week — a contradiction between potential and form that makes them unpredictable.
The match’s immediate consequence is clear: a win keeps Atalanta’s push for Europe plausible and extends their strong recent record in Sardinia; a loss would deepen the hole between them and the top four. For Cagliari, three points would be a direct step toward safety with five games to go; anything less and the margins will tighten fast.
Which story holds depends on Monday. If Atalanta can turn the resilience they showed in Bergamo into a routine league victory, their season will still look alive. If Cagliari use home advantage and the memory of their December reverse fixture to grind out a result, they will move closer to the safety their earlier triple wins promised. The man who scored Atalanta’s late equaliser in Bergamo, Marco Pašalić, will be a simple measure of both clubs’ fortunes: his involvement could tell you whether Atalanta have energy left to chase Europe or whether the Coppa Italia heartbreak has already cost them momentum.
