The Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini spoke to Sky Sports in view of the match against Celtic valid for the third day of the Champions League. This is the thought of the Atalanta coach: “A very important match given the ranking and the competition formula. We will have to be careful, a team that has great tradition in Europe and has dominated its championship for years. It will be a clash of value.”
What do you think of Celtic?
“They’re not a first-tier team like Arsenal, but still a dangerous team. They’re used to winning. In Dortmund they faced a very strong team and the match took that turn, but there isn’t all that distance They have those physical characteristics that we know and a lot of speed.”
Is it the right race to find continuity?
“I can’t complain… We had an empty passage in the championship and it made us delay a bit, but the path is in line with the growth of the team. Playing every three days there may be moments of difficulty, but Tomorrow is the Champions League and the margins for error are small.”
How are the injured players, especially in defence?
“We’ll have to check Hien and Kolasinac, we’re in a bit of an emergency in the department but we were able to cope well and we’ll try to do so tomorrow too.”
Ederson and his tooth problem?
“He had this toothache episode on Sunday, but luckily there are good dentists in Bergamo.”
Atalanta and its European mentality?
“In recent years in Europe we have made a good contribution to the ranking… Even in the Champions League we have always achieved good goals. Now let’s think about getting past the first round, then we’ll see.”
Immobile, Milito, Zamorano… Who reminds you of Retegui?
“Retegui. Each of those he is compared to has their own characteristics, he is evolving, perhaps in some time we will be able to have a better definition. He is at the right age to reach maturity, now it is important that he is also showing things different from his classic repertoire”.