Atalanta rout Sassuolo with sub Josip Ilicic netting hat trick

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:26 am

Atalanta forward Josip Ilicic came off the bench to score a hat trick in the last 20 minutes and help his side to a 6-2 rout away to Sassuolo on Saturday.

Duvan Zapata headed Atalanta in front from an Alejandro Gomez free kick in the 19th minute and Gomez himself added the second with a deflected shot three minutes before half-time.

There were three goals in a seven-minute spell early in the second half as Alfred Duncan pulled one back for Sassuolo, Gianluca Mancini restored Atalanta's two-goal lead and then Duncan struck again.

Josip Ilicic came off the bench to score a hat trick in a 6-2 win for Atalanta against Sassuolo.
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With the game on a knife-edge, Ilicic was brought on in the 63rd minute and the Slovenian became the first player to score a hat-trick in Serie A from the substitutes' bench since 2011.

He opened his account with an angled shot in the 74th minute, added a second with three minutes left following an exchange of passes with Gomez and completed his hat-trick on the counter-attack in stoppage time.