Gasperini: ‘Atalanta enjoy underdog status’ against Real Madrid

Gian Piero Gasperini insists Atalanta want to relish their ‘underdog’ status in the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid. ‘Anything can happen in football.’

It kicks off at the National Stadium in Warsaw at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.

If there is no winner after 90 minutes, then it goes straight to a penalty shoot-out rather than requiring extra time.

Gasperini relishing Atalanta underdog status

“Playing on August 14 perhaps forced a lot of fans to miss being on vacation on the beach, but it is a great moment for Atalanta and we hope to give them an unforgettable evening,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.

There were doubts as to what line-up La Dea would use in the absence of Teun Koopmeiners, Gianluca Scamacca, Nicolò Zaniolo, Giorgio Scalvini and Rafael Toloi.

New signing Mateo Retegui is on the bench, so Mario Pasalic supports Ademola Lookman and Charles De Ketelaere with no real centre-forward figure.

“We have to focus on playing good football, showing our own qualities and having courage. What we really don’t want is a performance below our standards. Without arrogance, we want to play our style of football,” continued Gasperini.

“Undoubtedly, against the best team in the world right now who won the Champions League and added Mbappe too, we need the perfect performance, but anything can happen in football.

“We above all want to put in a quality performance. Playing as underdogs is something we’ve done many times now, we very rarely are considered favourites in these situations, but that creates extra adrenaline too and we want to use that in a positive manner.”

Circa 6,000 Atalanta fans have managed to get tickets for this match along with travel to Warsaw, although naturally they are vastly out-numbered by the Real Madrid and neutral supporters in the stands.