Gian Piero Gasperinicoach of theAtalantagave an interview to Sky Sports shortly before the challenge of Champions League scheduled for this evening against theArsenal to the Gewiss Stadium:
Do you still feel butterflies for the Champions League?
“Absolutely. If they aren’t there, it means you have no more emotions. Football lives on these emotions, and tonight’s is high. We’re challenging a great team, in a beautiful stadium. These are the games we’d always like to play.”
Will it take a courageous, cheeky Atalanta?
“Courageous and confident, but not brazen. It’s a game we also want to play and not suffer. You risk seeing the ball very little against these teams. We hope to get a favorable result, it’s fundamental for us. But we don’t want to distort our characteristics”.
In what way does Atalanta feel stronger than Arsenal?
“We don’t have this perception. We are a little more humble, we don’t feel stronger but we can develop our game and our match. We have great ambition”.
How does Arsenal differ from other English teams?
“It’s a team with a capital S. It’s compact, it defends with all its players, the attackers come back a lot. It knows how to press, it knows how to play in tight spaces and it has fast players. We have to read what’s happening on the pitch well. We have to measure ourselves against them and prevent them from making their best plays. This is fundamental, otherwise you become a loser. We have the hope and the desire to build something”.