For ninety minutes and more, the New Balance Arena had held its breath. Atalanta pressed and probed, Bologna dug in and refused to break, and the game seemed destined to drain away into a frustrating goalless stalemate. Then, in the 96th minute, Lazar Samardzic settled everything with a single swing of his left boot.

The Serbian collected possession on the edge of the area and let fly, the ball arcing away from the goalkeeper and nestling into the bottom-left corner. Nicola Zalewski had supplied the pass, and between them the pair rescued three points that had looked, for so long, beyond reach. It was the last meaningful act of the match, and it was decisive.

This was not a night of flowing football or emphatic dominance. It was a night of nerve, of a home side trusting that persistence would eventually crack a resolute visiting defence. When the breakthrough finally came, deep into added time, the release was total. Atalanta had won without playing anywhere near their best, and there is often more value in that than in a comfortable rout.

Ground out

Bologna had come to the New Balance Arena with a clear plan: to frustrate, to compress the space, to make Atalanta earn every inch. For long stretches it worked handsomely. The visitors defended their box with discipline and numbers, and the clock ticked towards a point that would have felt like gold dust given their circumstances.

But defending for a full match, resisting wave after wave, asks an enormous toll. One lapse, one half-yard of room, is all it can take. Zalewski found precisely that pocket in the sixth minute of stoppage time, and Samardzic did the rest. The margins in this fixture were microscopic, and they fell Atalanta's way at the very last.

For the hosts, the manner of the victory speaks to a certain steel. Teams that harbour ambitions of the upper reaches of Serie A must learn to win games like this — ugly, tense, decided by a moment of quality when patience is stretched to breaking point. Atalanta passed that examination.

Perfect start preserved

The win lifts Atalanta to fifth on six points, a maximum haul from their opening two matches. Two games, two wins, three goals scored and just one conceded: it is a record of ruthless efficiency, and one that keeps them within touching distance of the summit. The defensive solidity underpinning that start should not be overlooked, either.

Sitting fifth after this round, Atalanta have the look of a side settling quickly into a rhythm. The late nature of this triumph will only sharpen their belief that they can grind out results even when the football does not flow. Momentum, at this stage of a campaign, is a currency worth hoarding.

There is a quiet menace to a team that finds a way to win on nights like this. Atalanta did not dazzle, but they refused to accept a draw, and Samardzic's intervention ensured their ledger remains unblemished. That combination of quality and stubbornness will worry the sides above them.

Bologna's early hole

For Bologna, this was a cruel outcome. Having defended so heroically for so long, to concede at the very last is the sort of blow that lingers. They remain rooted in 15th place, still without a point, having now lost both of their opening fixtures without scoring a single goal. Two matches, two defeats, nothing to show for their efforts.

The wider picture is one of an attack that has yet to fire and a defence that, on this evidence, is capable of far better than the table suggests. The performance here — resolute, organised, so nearly enough — offers something to build on, even in defeat. The problem is that resilience without a goal at the other end will only ever earn heartbreak.

Zero points from six available is not the start anyone at Bologna will have wanted, and the early weeks of a Serie A season can set a tone that proves difficult to shift. The task now is to convert this kind of defensive discipline into something more tangible, and quickly, before the deficit to safety hardens into a genuine concern.

What comes next

Atalanta will travel onwards with their confidence swelling and their record spotless, knowing that a side capable of scoring in the 96th minute is a side that never truly believes a game is lost. The challenge will be to marry that late-match resolve with the earlier fluency that would turn tight wins into comfortable ones. On this showing, they have the temperament for the long haul.

Bologna, meanwhile, must regroup with urgency. The performance was there; the reward was not. Finding a first goal of the season is the immediate priority, and with it the first point, before a difficult opening fortnight threatens to define the whole campaign.

The New Balance Arena emptied into the late summer night with the home crowd still buzzing at the drama of it all. One shot, one assist, one moment stolen from the jaws of a stalemate — and Atalanta marched on, unbeaten and unbowed, while Bologna were left to rue what might have been.