On the sidelines of the success on the Lazio field, the Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini he entrusted his analysis to the microphones of Sky Sport. Below are all of his statements.
Is this your best game in this championship?
“Probably yes, considering the value of the opponent and the game we played. It’s one of those matches that can give you great confidence, against an opponent who had led us to play one of our worst games in the first leg.”
Do you get angry if you say it’s a Champions League Atalanta?
“We’ve never backed down. When we get to ten games to go and we’ll still be there… It would be an extraordinary achievement, but what the boys are doing now is already extraordinary.”
Is Hojlund a diamond to be polished?
“Absolutely yes: he has considerable margins, energy, intensity and technical qualities. He will grow and improve further, but we can’t just put him in the spotlight tonight. They were also very good in defense, including the substitutes.”
Do the characteristics of your men lead you to be a faster team than in the past?
“We’ve changed a lot and we have different characteristics: Gomez and Ilicic had an extraordinary technical rate, they catalysed our game and the others revolved around them. This is a team that needs to be more united, but it also has characteristics of speed that it didn’t have before Ederson also did very well tonight, it was one of his best matches. More generally, it was one of our best matches: Lazio were also playing very well, it was a great match.”
Sarri says that facing you is like going to the dentist: do you share it?
“Being able to be a dentist in the Champions League, in front of big teams like City, has already been a great merit. In the league we also manage to become a bit of a surgeon: we’ve been riding in the upper areas of the standings for some time now”.
Ederson played alongside De Roon, with Koopmeiners taller. How do you intend to use it?
“At the beginning of the year he played more advanced, and he had been very good in the first phase of the season. In the rest of the championship, however, he played his best games as a midfielder. He and Teun are interchangeable, and this is a strength for us: they can alternate in insertions and give less references to opponents”.
Does Hojlund remind you of Haaland in some ways?
“The characteristics are very similar, especially in accelerations. He is a very fast player, he is under eleven seconds over the hundred meters. For his height, he has a low center of gravity and an incredible step frequency: I am convinced he will have a great career, there it takes a lot to intuit it. Technically it always shows different and better things”.
Should he be taught the underhand touch in front of the goalkeeper?
“That’s how he scored in Bologna. He also has that shot there. At least we have something to teach him (laughs, ed.)”.
