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| - Luis Muriel scored twice as Atalanta bounced back from successive losses in Serie A with a 2-1 victory at bottom side Crotone on Saturday to move second in the early table. Gian Piero Gasperini's men, who drew 2-2 with Ajax in the Champions League in midweek, sit one point behind league leaders AC Milan who visit Udinese on Sunday. Atalanta conceded seven goals in back-to-back defeats by Napoli and Sampdoria. They were not at their fluent best on Saturday, but did enough to edge out Crotone, who remain without a league win this season. Gasperini said he had tough decisions to make ahead of next week's crucial Champions League group-stage game against Liverpool, after Hans Hateboer and Cristian Romero were both substituted at Crotone with muscle problems. "Serie A and the Champions League are two very different tournaments and I don't want to choose between them," he told Sky Sport Italia. "We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see, (defender Rafael) Toloi also had a heavy knock to his knee, so we'll see who we can recover and who we can't." Muriel, who scored 18 Serie A goals last term despite only starting 10 matches, grabbed a 26th-minute opener by collecting Ruslan Malinovsky's pass and drilling a low shot into the net. Papu Gomez wasted an excellent chance to double the lead, but Colombian forward Muriel did slot in his second goal seven minutes before half-time. Nwankwo Simy gave the hosts hope before the break, but their frustrations boiled over in the second half as coach Giovanni Stroppa was sent to the stands after receiving two yellow cards in a matter of minutes. Inter Milan can leapfrog Atalanta and draw level on points with their city rivals later on Saturday when they welcome Parma to the San Siro. jc/dj
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