Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui stared down Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone from 12 yards.

La Dea had been awarded a penalty after Juan Cuadrado had been tripped by Jesper Karlsson.

Atalanta were at home and, surprisingly, a goal down. Retegui ran towards the ball and clipped it past Falcone, almost Panenka-style, down the middle.

It was his 24th league goal of the season, and with it the Italo-Argentine equalled Pippo Inzaghi’s record for most goals scored for Atalanta in a single season.

Now Pisa coach, Inzaghi won the 1996-97 Capocannoniere after a breakout year in Serie A, and on the back of it landed a big-money move to Juventus, replacing Christian Vieri.

Race for the Capocannoniere

Retegui’s penalty took the 26-year-old seven clear of Fiorentina’s Moise Kean in the race to secure this season’s prize. 

Like Inzaghi before him, Retegui is also experiencing his breakout campaign in Bergamo after a decent first season in Europe with Genoa in 2023-24. 

Signed from Boca Juniors, he scored seven times for the Rossoblu last term and few expected the explosion of goals that followed.

Much in the same manner, Kean is also having the most productive season of his career, sitting in second place on 17 goals.

However, Kean has hit a bit of a wall in the last two months, scoring just two in seven Serie A games since netting a brace in the 3-0 win over Inter in early February.

Yet the Italian has long surpassed his previous best tally in the top flight – six in 2018-19 and 2022-23 – and such has been his form that a move away from Florence this summer could be on the cards.

Inter’s Marcus Thuram is third with 14 and, barring an extraordinary scoring run in the remaining four games, the Frenchman will not overtake Retegui.

Thuram, like Retegui and Kean, is also having a bit of a dry patch in the second half of the season.

He is already one better than his first season in Italy, when he scored 13. Yet the majority of Thuram’s goals were scored in the first half of the campaign. Since the turn of the year he has managed only two in Serie A and three in the Champions League.

With Thuram’s strike partner – and last season’s Capocannoniere – Lautaro Martinez having an off season in terms of goals (currently on 12), Inter lack a cutting edge in attack without the son of the legendary Lillian in the side. 

With the Nerazzurri’s title race with Napoli set to go down to the wire and Martinez seemingly reserving his goals for Europe, Simone Inzaghi will be hoping Thuram finds his scoring boots in the league sooner rather than later.

Capocannoniere prediction: Mateo Retegui

It would be nothing short of miraculous if Retegui does not become La Dea’s first Capocannoniere holder since Inzaghi 28 years ago.

Even if Retegui does not play another minute this season, it is unlikely Kean would overtake him in the final stretch, with Fiorentina having a difficult run of games to close the campaign.

So Retegui is set to become the latest in a long line of Argentine hitmen to pick up the award, with players such as Omar Sivori, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo, Gonzalo Higuain, Mauro Icardi and Martinez winning it down the years.

Race for the Pablito award

In Serie B, the Pablito award, named after legendary Italian striker Paolo Rossi, is being hotly-contested with four players in the hunt.

Armand Lauriente sits atop the able, with the French forward netting 17 times for runaway leaders Sassuolo. 

Despite sharing the goals around the front line (Samuele Mulattieri and Nicholas Pierini have also been banging them in), the Neroverdi have scored goals for fun, and Lauriente has benefited more than most.

The 26-year-old has been one of the standout performers in Serie B this season, and with promotion secure, it would not be a surprise if he ended the campaign with more personal glory.

Hot on his heels is Catanzaro talisman and captain Pietro Iemmello. The 33-year-old has almost single-handedly catapulted the Calabrian outfit into the play-off places, with 16 goals in 31 games.

Iemmello, a player who has bounced around the lower echelons of the Italian game but never had a taste of the big time, is three goals shy of equalling his career-best tally in a single campaign.

In 2019-20 at Perugia, Iemmello slammed in 19 goals in 35 games, but after the Umbrian outfit suffered relegation into the third tier, he left for Spain and a move to Las Palmas.

Now at his hometown club since 2022, he has a real chance of winning the award he missed out on five years ago.

Third on the list is Spezia’s Francesco Pio Esposito with 15.

On loan from Inter, Esposito’s goals have fired Spezia’s promotion push.

Nine points behind Pisa for the second automatic spot, the Ligurian side will, barring a monumental collapse from the Tuscans, be in the play-offs and in with a real chance of a return to Serie A.

Looking at Spezia’s run-in, there is a chance for Esposito to add to his tally, especially with games against Salernitana, Reggiana and already-relegated Cosenza remaining.

Yet Esposito is going through something of a sticky patch. His last goal, in the 2-2 draw with Frosinone, was his first for five games and he has scored only two in the past two months.

Andrea Adorante of Juve Stabia is also in the running, with the Italian striker on 14 and in the form of his career. The 25-year-old, a former youth product of Parma and Inter, has fired the Campania side into the mix for the most unlikely of promotions.

Pablito prediction: Armand Lauriente

With Sassuolo dominating every opponent this season, it is difficult to look past Lauriente.

The only issue could be with coach Fabio Grosso resting him or his side taking their foot off the gas with promotion secured.

Despite being just one goal behind, Catanzaro hitting a rough patch at just the wrong time might hurt Iemmello’s chances while Esposito’s form has dipped in the final stretch.

Adorante could be an outside bet, especially with Juve Stabia’s generous run of games in the final weeks of the season – after Catanzaro they play Brescia, Reggiana and Sampdoria. 

At the very least, there is a chance of Adorante finishing on the podium.