The Atalanta coach: “Against Napoli we didn’t put the right concentration, but we will have to have it in the cup. Zapata? He will start from the bench, but with great chances to enter.”
The Europa League dimension: the new border of Atalanta. Now that arriving in the Champions League along the roads of the championship has become something very similar to a utopia, playing this quarter-final is not only a source of pride “since for three years – Gian Piero Gasperini smiled broadly – we are the best Italian in the cups: when we started playing in Europe we were afraid of not being able to make an adequate contribution to our ranking and instead we behaved well, at least we were not a burden … And this is also an important stimulus “.
semifinal goal
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Not the only one: going over the double match against Leipzig would mean looking forward to the final, “but our first goal today is just to get through the round: just getting to the semifinal would be important. We don’t feel the need to win. this trophy, none of our clubs has won since 1999. Then the second goal is to stay in Europe again next year and this is neither obvious nor easy “. First Leipzig, therefore: “And tomorrow’s match may already be important to understand the qualification percentages: but I hope the most important is the second leg. And I would not rely on the fact that we play the” first half “away, also because especially in our case you do not know what the advantage or the disadvantage of playing the second leg at home could be … For sure today, without goals that are worth double away, the draws are no longer useful, certainly not enough “. And to the microphones of Sky Sport he gets unbalanced: “If we overcome this obstacle, we can go very far”.
Europe version
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Comparisons between this Leipzig and the just eliminated Bayer Leverkusen are not even needed: “Same danger, but very different opponents in the way of being on the pitch: with Bayer it was a more open game, this can be a little more” blocked “, in the sense that we will have less space. And they know how to play very well in the restart. We should have met them two years ago in the Champions League but we did not reach the semifinal for a few minutes, to give an idea of the size of the opponent “. We will need Atalanta “Europe version” and as Hans Hateboer said “if we won in Valencia, in Liverpool, in Amsterdam, why can’t we do it here? But for sure we will have to defend better than in Leverkusen, albeit with the same spirit, because Musso cannot always save us “. With Valencia two years ago Atalanta also won the first leg, with two goals from the Dutchman, and the referee was Oliver, the same as tomorrow night: “Let’s see if it was” his fault “…”.
zapata ready
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The “European” Atalanta, therefore. Gasperini does not hide the fact that in Italy “the fact that we have distanced ourselves a little from the top positions may have deprived us of some attention, even if at some point having assigned us certain objectives (alludes to the Scudetto, ed) had been exaggerated. , there was not a clear measure in certain assessments. But we must quickly regain concentration in this season finale to reach a European qualification anyway, while in this competition we always had the right one, making few mistakes. It will be essential to have it also with Leipzig: we can’t afford to lose due to some inattention, maybe playing well like against Napoli “. The extra man can be Zapata: “For us it is important: he will start from the bench but with great possibilities to enter, the time has come.” And it could be Musso, who in Europe has (almost) always done well: “In the action of Napoli’s first goal there were four mistakes, with three wrong climbs, and then the last one was his: but if he misses the goalkeeper, you know … “. The confirmation, on the other hand, can be Scalvini: “he is ready: young, but in some respects he is already a crack”.
April 6, 2022 (change April 6, 2022 | 20:27)
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