The attacking flair synonymous with Atalanta in years gone by has been absent for much of this season, and an injury to top-scorer Gianluca Scamacca has only made matters worse.
Gian Piero Gasperini was forced to field a makeshift frontline against Torino, and their lack of chemistry was made doubly frustrating when Zapata, who started the campaign with La Dea, latched onto Nikola Vlasic’s low cross to clinically open the scoring.
In stark contrast, Charles De Ketelaere could only conjure a tame effort to mark the visitors’ first true glimpse of goal, which symbolised Atalanta’s weak and disjointed opening 45 minutes.
Gasperini’s double substitution at the break was telling, but unfortunately for the long-serving boss, it was far from effective as Giorgio Scalvini dragged down Alessandro Buongiorno to concede a careless penalty shortly after the restart.
Antonio Sanabria’s conversion was calm and composed to put Il Toro in the driver’s seat on home soil, and the next flicker of life from La Dea did not arrive until the final stages of the contest.
Things never truly clicked, however, as Mario Pasalic’s curling shot was palmed to safety by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, consigning Atalanta to their first goalless outing against the hosts since 2019.
Their misery was then compounded when Zapata found another yard in the box to dispatch his second goal deep into stoppage time.
Gasperini’s side are now four games without a win in Serie A - their joint-longest streak this calendar year - and it could become five this weekend when they welcome AC Milan to Bergamo.
Torino, meanwhile, are entering a favourable three-game run against sides currently in the bottom half, buoyed by their first clean sheet in four matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Duvan Zapata (Torino)
