Champions: Atalanta record, Young Boys trap

Asking Atalanta to become an exact team, with football as precise as a Swiss watch, would be doing the wrong to its DNA: it would be tantamount to distorting it, which is always a dangerous operation, especially for those who are strong in their uniqueness. And yet tonight, if what we saw two weeks ago in Bern and we have seen for a while is valid, Young Boys will have to be faced with a bit of “violence”: for an “important event, even if not yet decisive. ”(Synthesis of Gasperini), we need an Atalanta that is also rigorous, orderly, lucid. Without pauses, like someone who keeps time, which the Swiss can do quite well. And this Young Boys particularly well, as seen on September 14 against Manchester United.

Variabile Young Boys

—

It is precisely the analysis of that surprise “that made an already very balanced group more complicated” (always the coach) that makes Remo Freuler say, one who grew up in Switzerland as a football player and played seven seasons before arriving in 2016 at Bergamo, which “was an emblematic victory: it showed that if you play as a team you can go far. Like Italy at the European Championship ”. The match against Atalanta, “which we have been following for a long time, will be completely different from the one we played against United,” said coach David Wagner. And yet it was a game that may have said a lot to Gasperini. First of all, the Young Boys “links their organization to 4-4-2, but also knows how to vary, as with United before finding themselves in numerical superiority”. He faced the English by modulating the system between 4-5-1 (prevailing) and 4-2-3-1, but without the search for balance and greater coverage trespassing into a renouncing attitude. Indeed: the sensational balance of shots in that match (19-2 for the Swiss) was confirmation of “a team accustomed to playing to win and to do it: offensive, attack with many men and always in concert, as a team”. And attacking a lot, not only in Switzerland: nine times in the last ten games. Which means knowing how to be solid, and also in the head: against Manchester he went under after 13 ‘and won in the 90’, as do the tedious, reactive teams. And who have legs to run until the end, perhaps even more run-in than those of Atalanta from 16 games already played in a season that began on 21 July.

Just a note of reprimand

—

How much the strength of the Swiss enthusiasm will be will also depend on how much Atalanta will have acquired after the 2-2 against Inter and how much the return of Luis Muriel can give. “The result on Saturday gave us confidence”, assures Freuler: Remo said he does not remember it, but with Lucerne against Young Boys he scored three goals in eight games, which make him his most affected opponent (three goals also against Juve and Locarno, but in 14 and 9 challenges). “A game like this, which we came close to winning, gives you strength”, confirmed Gasp, reassured by the sentence of the National Anti-Doping Court for insults to a Nado Italia inspector on February 7: only a reprimand and the payment of expenses procedural (€ 378). But it also gives strength to the public, which Atalanta will embrace for the first time in a Champions League match in their stadium: they won at San Siro and never in Bergamo, “and if we are able to do at home what we did there. last year away, we will probably pass the round ”. Meanwhile, by winning tonight, Atalanta could find themselves leading the group alone, but for the Young Boys to experience this thrill, even a draw could be enough. But at least these calculations, Atalanta will leave them to their rival: Swiss yes, but without exaggerating.