Atalanta secures Champions League spot with win at Lecce in Serie A
ROME (AP) — Atalanta secured a Champions League spot with a 2-0 win at Lecce in the penultimate round of Serie A on Saturday.
The Bergamo squad is in fifth place, six points ahead of Roma, and holds a tiebreaker over the Giallorossi after beating Roma last weekend. Atalanta also moved within one point of fourth-placed Juventus.
Italy will have at least five squads in next season’s Champions League, and could earn a sixth spot if Atalanta defeats unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final on Wednesday.
Atalanta was coming off a 1-0 loss to Juventus in the Italian Cup final and Charles De Ketelaere and Gianluca Scamacca scored five minutes apart shortly after the break.
Scamacca set up De Ketelaere and then headed in the second.
Atalanta will return to the Champions League after a two-year absence. Its best result in Europe’s top club competition was the quarterfinals in 2020.
Later, second-placed AC Milan was visiting Torino.
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