MURIEL CHASING DOWN GOLDEN BOOT GLORY
Colombia attacker Luis Muriel is having a phenomenal season in the Italian Serie A and this is despite the fact that he is not a regular for Atalanta. Fellow Colombia attacker Duvan Zapata is always the preferred choice in the Atalanta attack for manager Gian Pero Gasperini but Luis Muriel has not been disturbed by that decision going by his penchant for scoring goals in the Italian Serie A this term thereby putting him in the hunt for the Golden Boot Award at the end of the season.
Gasperini has favoured the likes of Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata in his attack but Luis Muriel has always made his opportunities count whenever he gets them just like the weekend’s game at Cagliari.Atalanta found it hard to break down the Cagliari defencefor the majority of the game with the duo of Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata on the pitch until the arrival of Colombia international player Luis Muriel.
He scored on the stroke of full-time off the assist from Russian attacker AlekseiMiranchuk to hand Atalanta a crucial win. The away victory over hosts Cagliari ensured that Atalanta stayed in the hunt for both Champions League qualification glory and league glory. Atalanta are in sixth place on the Serie A log with 40 points and they have the same number of points as Napoli and Lazio in fifth and seventh place respectively. They are two points off the last Champions League place occupied by defending champions Juventus.
Atalanta are ten points off leaders Inter Milan with 16 games still to play to determine who wins the league this season. Will it be Juventus or a new team. For Luis Muriel, the Colombia player now has 13 league goals and a lot of the goals have come as a substitute. Only the quartet of RomeluLukaku (16), Cristiano Ronaldo (16), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (14) and Ciro Immobile (14) have scored more.
