On Wednesday, Atalanta “saved Italian football”. At least, that’s what the headlines said after their sensational 4-1 win over Dortmund that overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit and ensured Serie A representation in the last 16 of the Champions League. Yet on Sunday they could not save themselves from defeat to Sassuolo.

This ought to have been so much easier. Their opponents were a man down from the 16th minute, when Andrea Pinamonti was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Berat Djimsiti. Perhaps Atalanta let complacency creep in, multiplied by exhaustion from their midweek exertions. Or maybe Sassuolo deserve all the credit for the resilience they have developed this season under Fabio Grosso.

Either way, it was the Neroverdi who prevailed, taking the lead when Ismaël Koné forced the ball home at a corner then doubling it with a top-corner finish by Kristian Thorstvedt from the edge of the D. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” promised the chorus of Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping, playing as the goal music on the Mapei Stadium PA. Atalanta did rouse themselves, pulling one back through Yunus Musah, but Sassuolo held on for the win.

An excellent result for Grosso’s side – who have now won five of their last six games. A very damaging one for Raffaele Palladino’s Atalanta, whose team would end the weekend six points adrift of the top four. Qualifying for next season’s Champions League will be difficult for the last Italian team standing in this year’s competition. Atalanta are an established force in European football these days. They only made their Champions League debut in 2019 but have now participated in five of the last seven editions. When they missed out in 2023-24, they won the Europa League instead, thrashing Xabi Alonso’s previously undefeated Leverkusen in the final.

Still, their rise is recent enough that it continues to feel magical to supporters. Before kickoff against Dortmund last week, fans revealed a banner in the form of three Polaroid photos, showing Josip Ilicic scoring away to the same opponents in the 2017-18 Europa League. Atalanta lost that tie, but the brief moment when their Slovenian talisman brought them back from 1-0 down to lead at the Westfalenstadion, provoking the Sky commentator Riccardo Trevisani to scream of “delirio totale Neroazzurro” – total blue-and-black delirium – remains an iconic moment of club lore.

The celebration of that moment, nine years later, brought a welcome sense of perspective to a week in which it has sometimes been lacking. This has been a poor season for Italian clubs on the continent, but Serie A has been represented in two of the last three Champions League finals and two of the last four Europa League finals. Having covered this league through two decades and several ‘Year Zeros’, this does not feel like its lowest ebb.

The glory days of late 20th century are a distant memory, and any comparison to that era needs to be framed with financial reality. Inter boast the biggest revenue of any Italian club but could not crack the top 10 of the most recent Deloitte Football Money League. Juventus, 16th on that list, brought in only a little more than one-third the revenue of Real Madrid. The reasons have been discussed to death. Too many of Italy’s biggest clubs continue to play in stadiums they do not own. The infrastructure to support the development of young talent is, in lots of places, not where it should be. Petty politicking has sometimes got in the way of building of the league’s international brand.

Progress is painfully slow, but it is happening. Milan and Inter finalised their purchase of San Siro at the end of last year and intend to have a new stadium ready to move into before Italy co-hosts Euro 2032. Fiorentina’s remodel of the Stadio Artemio Franchi has been beset with delays but continues yet. A brilliant 20-year-old Italian is being trusted to lead the line for Inter. Juventus’s best player came through their NextGen side. The league itself continues to produce drama. Though Inter have pulled away at the top, the fight to finish in the top four has become ferocious. At the start of this weekend, there were only five points between third and seventh.

Sunday night’s showpiece game between Roma and Juventus was another barn burner. The Giallorossi took the lead on a gorgeous goal from their Brazilian wing-back Wesley – one of the stand-out new faces in the league – who cut in from the left and curled into the far corner. Juventus answered with a screamer from Francisco Conceição, lasering a half-volley into the roof of the net from outside the area. Roma thought they had secured an important win when they retook the lead through Evan Ndicka and then made it 3-1 in the 65th minute, Donyell Malen running on to a through-ball from Manu Koné and lifting the ball over the goalkeeper. The Dutchman, on loan from Aston Villa, has now scored five in his last four appearances.

But Juventus are living out their own tubthumping chorus lately, continuing to get back to their feet even after repeated knockdowns. Jérémie Boga pounced on a weak defensive header to pull a goal back after he was brought on to replace Jonathan David. In second-half injury time, Juventus won a free-kick 25 yards from goal on the right. Edon Zhegrova’s cross was flicked on by Weston McKennie then forced home by another substitute, Federico Gatti. A second strike in as many games for the centre-back, who also scored against Galatasaray on Wednesday, helping Juventus to recover their three-goal aggregate deficit only to lose in extra time. “I used to be a midfielder you know,” he quipped afterwards. “If I played as an attacker I’d get 15-20 goals.”

The game finished 3-3, keeping Juventus within four points of Roma but causing both to lose ground. The Giallorossi slipped to fourth, behind Napoli, who beat Verona 2-1 on Saturday. Juventus are down to sixth, overtaken by Como. Luciano Spalletti praised his players for their attitude. This has been a challenging chapter for Juventus, beaten in a Derby d’Italia defined by an unjust red card then eliminated from Europe with another loss to Como in-between. To rescue a draw from such an unfavourable position on Sunday, after playing 120 minutes, was worth celebrating.

“For their attitude, I’d give my players a ‘110 e lode’ (the top grade awarded in the Italian academic system – equivalent to first-class honours). For the quality, maybe we left something out there.” Asked whether his team could still finish in the top four, Spalletti replied that he was “living for” that objective. Qualifying for the Champions League remains an essential target for all of Italy’s biggest clubs, more reliant than their English or Spanish rivals on the revenue streams to balance their books.

A disappointingly unromantic truth. If the extent of Serie A’s demise was overstated last week, it does feel a shame that so much of the conversation always seems to land on the importance of qualifying for the Champions League, rather than on how clubs might aim to emulate Atalanta and create lasting memories for their fans once they get there.