‘We had a horrible start’ – Atalanta boss outlines regret after elimination
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini says his side leaves the Champions League with a lot of regrets after a 3-2 defeat on Thursday night.
La Dea needed a win at home to Villarreal to finish second in the group behind Manchester United. After some very leaky defending, they found themselves 3-0 down early into the second half. A fine comeback and hitting the woodwork three times proved in vain.
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Gasperini told Amazon Prime Italia: “We usually manage to give our best in games like this, but instead we had just a horrible start and it becomes difficult when you go behind at this level.
“We got the sensation as time wore on that we could get back into it, but it was too late. When Muriel hit the post, if that had gone in for 3-3, it would’ve given us a chance to throw everything at them.
“There are even more regrets because we went out in a game that we were more than capable of winning.
“The players have put in so many good performances this season, an off day can happen.
“With Villarreal taking such an early lead, they could sit back even deeper and we struggled to break them down. The whole first half was not good, we misplaced passes and lacked our usual quality.
“We leave the Champions League with a lot of regrets.”
Atalanta led in five of their six group matches but threw away points from winning positions. Giving up a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford against the Red Devils to lose 3-2 proved damaging. Conceding an injury-time equaliser to Cristiano Ronaldo in the reverse fixture was another galling moment.
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Zapata wants Serie A focus
Atalanta striker Duvan Zapata has encouraged his teammates to divert their focus on Serie A after their elimination from the UEFA Champions League.
A 3-2 home defeat on Thursday to Villarreal saw the Bergamo-based side drop down into the Europa League.
Zapata said: “We are disappointed, but also feel we gave everything we had.
“It’s really sad, because we wanted to go through and be in the final 16. That’s the way it went, we need to focus on Serie A now, because it is thanks to our form in the league that we got here.”
“They scored so early and we tried to fight back, but I think the anxiety got to us. Villarreal are a really good team and they played so well this evening.
“We tried to play our game and at least equalise, but luck wasn’t on our side with the woodwork. There are regrets over all the situations where we could’ve done better, but I also feel that we can rest easy knowing we tried everything to get this game back on track.”
Atalanta travel to face Verona on Sunday with little rest, due to their Villarreal match being moved from Wednesday to Thursday night due to heavy snow. La Dea sit fourth in Serie A, just four points off log leaders AC Milan.
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