Gian Piero Gasperini comments with great clarity and honesty on the home draw against Verona capable of coming back from two goals and snatching a point from Gewiss: “I think it was a good match even if there is the regret of not having won it and having thrown away the opportunity to play for a more prestigious Europe but Verona played a good match – he says – The comeback? I don’t think it was a physical decline because even towards the end we had opportunities, in this championship we have done very well in some matches but we have compromised others in just a few minutes.” No distractions from the return match against Liverpool: “Today was an important match, we weren’t thinking about Liverpool, because for us it was a fundamental match, then on Thursday there will be another competition and on Wednesday another yet, in this championship we have wasted a few too many races”. It is not easy to perform at your best in so many competitions: “There are many advantages of playing European competitions but there are some disadvantages especially in the attempt to maintain the best psycho-physical condition. Tonight Verona had a great reaction and therefore the matches are always very difficult, we also saw it with today’s results. It’s not just Atalanta’s problem.”
“Liverpool? Verona scored us 2 goals in 4 minutes, we have to be careful”
So no problems with squad depth: “I don’t think at the start of the season we thought we would be in three competitions in April, so we started with a squad, we went further this year, in the last 10 games we have played eight away, it was an intense period in which we recharged ourselves with each match, we also faced all the best teams for a rather long period – he explains – I was hoping to improve our ranking with tonight but there are still many games and all the competitions, we won’t give up on any of themwe all play as best we can with our squad, some of my players are highlanders“. And Thursday the Liverpool: “Verona scored two goals for us in 4 minutes and so we have to be careful because Liverpool also scored three in a Champions League final against a team. We know that nothing is taken for granted and we will have to play a great game, we will find all the energy to reach a wonderful goal.”