Gian Piero Gasperini was not satisfied with Atalanta’s performance against Olympique Marseille, but concedes 1-1 ‘is a good result’ in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final.
Gianluca Scamacca had opened the scoring with a well-worked move on the Teun Koopmeiners assist, cancelled out by the sudden Chancel Mbemba strike from distance that ricocheted in off the inside of the far post.
“I expected a few more goals, to be honest,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.
“It was a great goal, good movement and the pass with the right timing. Clearly, in this type of match it will be fundamental to create more situations like that in Bergamo, because we only really threatened them again late on.
“We had to struggle tonight, but it’s a good result, as Olympique lost once here all year against PSG and give their best in this stadium.”
Gasperini forced to change
Isak Hien was suspended this evening and Sead Kolasinac limped off with a left flexor issue in the first half, forcing Atalanta to move Marten de Roon into defence.
“Kolasinac was a big loss and we had to adapt De Roon as a defender, lost a substitution, had to change our midfield. Now we’ll see how long he is out for, but Djimsiti, Scalvini and De Roon managed to limit the Marseille attacks, which were coming in waves at one stage.”
Olympique Marseille are famously a different team when away from home compared to in the cauldron of the Stade Velodrome, so the fact Atalanta held out for a 1-1 draw is an excellent result.
“I don’t trust that reputation too much, as if Marseille got to the semi-final, it means they are good away too. We saw them score four goals against Villarreal, they eliminated Benfica. It’s true their results were not at the same standard as at home, but they remain a good team and we need a great performance.
“We have an incredible opportunity, 1-1 is a good result and we need to win. Whether we do it in 90 minutes, after 120 or with penalties, but we want to reach the Final.”
Gasperini seemed far from content with the performance from Atalanta in Marseille and warned he wants a significant improvement for the second leg next Thursday at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.
“We allowed a few too many counter-attacks and could’ve conceded three tonight. We didn’t keep the ball enough and that prevented us from developing our game properly, something we absolutely need to do better in the second leg.
“Tactically, we must try to win without giving them the spaces to counter-attack and we probably need to score more than one goal, as I rarely see 1-0 results in Europe. They can score in any way, no matter how we play. We need to raise our game, move the ball around faster in attack and put the strikers in a better position to win the game.
“The target is to win, not to draw. We need to score more goals.”
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