La Dea have been in poor form of late, with their victory over Venezia at the weekend ending a three-game losing run, but they were never in danger of leaving with anything other than three points here.
In fact, they were three goals to the good by the interval against a lacklustre Pafos outfit, and needed fewer than 60 seconds to break the deadlock when Eljif Elmas swept into the bottom corner from just inside the area.
There was hardly a stream of chances in the opening exchanges, but the next effort, which came shortly after the quarter-hour mark, almost found the back of the net as Radoslaw Majecki fantastically tipped Giacomo Raspadori’s stinging strike behind for a corner.
Almost immediately, Atalanta were gifted a fantastic opportunity to double their advantage when Bruno Felipe felled Nicola Zalewski in the area and, from the spot, Raspadori sent Majecki the wrong way. However, the striker was forced off after injuring himself during his run-up to the penalty.
Pafos had a couple of chances to halve the arrears, but Lele missed a glorious opportunity, skewing wide with only Marco Carnessechi to beat, and they too suffered a fitness blow when captain David Luiz trundled off with what appeared to be a hamstring issue.
On the brink of half-time, Atalanta put the game to bed, with Gianluca Scamacca - Raspadori’s replacement - slotting into the bottom corner following Charles de Ketelaere’s clever through ball.
Atalanta did not let their dominance slip after the break, as Zalewski drew another fantastic stop from Majecki with a shot from an angle that was heading for the top corner. Ultimately, though, Atalanta didn't need to push for more goals and could move the ball around with relative freedom for much of the second half.
There were some promising openings to extend their lead further, but they lacked their previous edge in front of goal and were unable to add to the scoreline.
As such, they have now won four of their past five games at home and will hope their back-to-back wins can provide a platform for a sustained improvement in form.
Pafos, meanwhile, have now failed to win their last nine away games in UEFA competition, although they did at least end their run of six such matches without a goal as Biel Teixeira struck a late consolation.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Charles de Ketelaere (Atalanta B.C)
