Newly-promoted Norwich suffered a chastening defeat in their first match at Carrow Road since securing their place in the Premier League in April. 

After scoring first through Academy graduate Todd Cantwell’s well-taken goal after 16 minutes, one of several chances they created in an encouraging first-half performance, they threw away their lead on the stroke of half-time when captain Timm Klose gifted the ball to Atalanta’s Luis Muriel with a wayward pass across his own penalty area. 

Afterwards manager Daniel Farke reflected on the lessons his team learned from the night. “When you face a team at Champions League level, you have to play without any mistakes and not nearly a perfect half, otherwise such a small situation can change the world.”

Teemu Pukki was twice denied at the start of the second half by goalkeeper’s Pierluigi Gollini’s feet but after the Italians brought on last season’s top-scorer Duvan Zapata, they began to cut through the Canaries on the counter-attack. 

Zapata started the move from which Muriel scored a second after being played in by Marten De Roon. He then had a goal disallowed and a shot cleared off the line before a slick short-passing move ended with Mario Palasic adding a third. 

In the final moments, another substitute, Musa Barrow, raced clear of Norwich’s defence to slot home a fourth.

Afterwards goalscorer Cantwell focused on the positives. “I feel like the scoreline didn’t really reflect the game in the early on. You play against a team like that, you know one mistake leads to a goal. We have got to get used to that because I feel that is going to be something that happens in the Premier League. It’s a lesson learned.

“They’re a very good side but I think we started very well and I think we pinned them back. They were probably a little bit surprised at the level we came out at. Early on it could have been two or three-nil to us. We can take a lot from the game and clear up on a couple of little bits and I think we’ll be in a really good place.”

Farke concurred: “We dominated the game in the first half, we dominated possession, our pressing was really, really good. We created many chances, scored one goal, should have scored a few more to be honest. 

“I wouldn’t interpret it too much on the last 20 minutes because there were so many changes. I’m more or less pleased with the performance, it sounds ridiculous because we lost this game but there are still many, many positives things of course we have to speak about the small mistakes but in general it was not too bad.”

Norwich open the Premier League season away to European champions Liverpool next Friday and Cantwell cannot wait to for the season to get started. “You’ve got to take it as “this is your job and this is what you’ve got to do” but obviously there’s a massive part of you that’s excited. I’ve wanted to play in the Premier League my whole life and it’s just around the corner.”