Gian Piero Gasperini was left frustrated by Atalanta’s wasteful finishing in a dominant performance against Roma, but won’t say they are ‘favourites’ in the Coppa Italia Final with Juventus.
La Dea continued their extraordinary form after reaching the Coppa Italia and Europa League Finals, as they absolutely dominated this 2-1 win at the Gewiss Stadium.
Charles De Ketelaere had a brace under his belt within the 20th minute, with the Belgian and Teun Koopmeiners also rattling the frame of the goal in the first half, but they wasted so many of their 24 chances, even after the Lorenzo Pellegrini penalty.
“I don’t know if we’ve learned a lesson, other than we had so many scoring opportunities and did not aim properly, otherwise we would’ve killed it off a lot earlier,” Gasperini told DAZN.
“Even then we continued to have chances late on, some of them incredible, and left the game open until the final whistle.
“Failing to win this match really would’ve caused us a lot of problems.”
This result puts Atalanta three points clear of Roma in fifth place with a game in hand, which will be played against Fiorentina on June 2.
De Ketelaere has truly flourished under Gasperini’s guidance, having struggled so much at Milan.
“Everyone knew he could play, or Milan would not have made an investment like that. He deserves the credit, he was going all over the place, right, left and centre tonight. Essentially, he needs to be in good shape, he is intelligent, he knows football and it is not difficult to move him around.
“He has initiative, physicality and in my view has margin for improvement still. When it’s a physical game like this, he is extraordinary.”
Gasperini was asked about his decisions to keep squad rotation to a minimum, but then take several stars off at the 56th minute.
“Scamacca was a little fatigued and we needed some fresh legs. We have another game coming up on Wednesday, so I took Ruggeri off as he scored on Thursday against Olympique Marseille. If you put all these matches together, I’d happily have made 15 changes.”
Gasperini turns focus to Coppa Italia
The focus now turns towards Wednesday at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where Atalanta face Juventus in the Coppa Italia Final, but Gianluca Scamacca will be suspended for that tie.
Considering Juventus have drawn their last five Serie A matches, including today’s scraped 1-1 with Salernitana, are La Dea the favourites?
“I think it’s a bit much to suggest we’d be favourites against Juve. We are in good form, but it’s difficult to tell playing every three days, which we’ve been doing non-stop since February 27,” continued Gasperini.
“We have a deep squad, but in the end it’s 15-16 who play regularly. Kolasinac won’t be there for Juve, but hopefully we’ll have him before the end of the season. It wasn’t like this in the past, there were not this many games.
“Naturally, we go into this Coppa Italia Final with great enthusiasm.”
Gasperini was asked about his history with Atalanta and the ideal XI of his eight years at the club, having seen so many players go through.
“I think you could have two ideal XIs from my time there. Maybe it’s not a good sign, as it means I’ve been here a long time!”
What if his current Atalanta had a face-off with the 2019-20 side that reached the Champions League quarter-finals?
“The approach and mentality are quite similar, but Josip Ilicic and Papu Gomez had greater technique than everyone else, whereas the team now is more homogenous in its quality. We have more physicality now, especially in defence.
“I am the wrong person to judge, as I am so fond of them all.”
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