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Coppa Italia: Runner-up Team rating: 8/10 Top scorer: Luis Muriel (22) Europe: Champions League Round of 16

La Dea earned a Champions League spot for the third time in a row, an achievement worth as much as a trophy as they continue to fight and win against the league’s biggest clubs, writes Richard Hall.

Another miracle in Bergamo

It is hard not to be baffled by the side from Bergamo. To say that they overachieve is an understatement and this year was no different. Considering their budget, it is a minor miracle that Atalanta managed to qualify for the Champions League again and reach the Coppa Italia Final. They missed out on the latter in a hard-fought tie with Juventus, but they can hold their heads up high with their performing levels.

Considering La Dea have made their name in previous years by cultivating a fertile youth system, they can honestly say they have not had this luxury in recent years. Ironically, two of their academy graduates – Dejan Kulusevski and Amad Diallo – left before they could even make an impact at the Gewiss Stadium. They went for a combined €84m fee despite having played just eight games at a senior level at Atalanta.

There are rumours that there is a crop of talented youngsters on the horizon, which will only fuel what a very well oiled machine is. It is testament to the recruitment and the coach that this ragtag band of brothers is performing at elite levels. Gian Piero Gasperini has assembled a squad that is incredibly interchangeable. There are few players who are irreplaceable and do not have an equally talented counterpart on the bench.

They proved this in 2020-21 when Papu Gomez, the one man who may have been viewed as indispensable, left. Josip Ilicic has also had his issues this year and yet Atalanta have not just coped, they have succeeded. “Nobody would believe we would achieve these results without them,” Gasperini said after the last game of the season against Milan.

Papu clashed with the coach after a Champions League game against Midtjylland as he reportedly refused Gasp’s orders during the game. However, Atalanta are so tactically organized that dropping Gomez never caused them problems and the shift from the Papu era was an easy pill to swallow, even if it was sad for many fans to see their leader and captain leave under such circumstances.

Gasperini proved the collective can be stronger than individualities, not the other way around. Atalanta never lost their identity during the campaign and they even evolved playing, at times, with a 4-2-3-1 system that Gasperini had hardly used in his coaching career.

Ruslan Malinovskyi ended up being the perfect replacement for Papu having reached double figures for both goals (10) and assists (12) in all competitions. The Ukraine international was pivotal to Atalanta’s successes in the final part of the season where he managed six goals and nine assists in 11 games.

Players like him, Marten De Roon, Luis Muriel, Duvan Zapata, and Robin Gosens have been exemplary and Italian football has been once again treated to watching ‘La Dea’ produce swashbuckling displays that have entertained so many for so long.

Gasperini’s men have matured this campaign and the fact they have beaten the likes of Napoli to Europe’s elite competition shows that they are not just planning to be here momentarily. They have a system that the team all know and are not scared of the ‘bigger teams’. When the fans are back next season, then going to Bergamo will be even more tricky. Perhaps, as Fabio Capello suggested, they could even aim to win the first Serie A title in their history in 2021-22.

The coach – Gian Piero Gasperini

He is the architect of this incredible side that managed to earn a Champions League spot for the third season in a row. Although La Dea lost their second Coppa Italia Final under Gasperini, the coach warned the club and the players to enjoy what they achieved rather than regret what they could have had. He is right, what they achieved is worth as much as a trophy. Atalanta have the 11th wage bill in Serie A with €42.6m gross, less than what Juventus pay for Cristiano Ronaldo alone. Despite that, they ended the season level on points with the Bianconeri and managed to beat them for the first time in 20 years on April 18.

Player of the season – Luis Muriel

The Colombian forward had the best season of his career with 22 goals scored in Serie A. The former Fiorentina and Sampdoria forward has scored more than 20 goals starting from the bench since joining Atalanta in 2019. He never complained for starting games on the bench and netted more than 20 goals in a single campaign for the first time in his career. Simply devastating.

Defining moment – Win against Milan

When La Dea visited table leaders Milan in January, many expected a levelled game, but it didn’t quite end up that way. A Cristian Romero goal gave La Dea the lead before the break before Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata finished the job in the second half. Atalanta dominated the game and since that precise moment, it was crystal clear they would have qualified for Europe’s elite competition for the third season in a row. Their star striker Papu Gomez would have joined Sevilla only three days later, but Atalanta proved they had already coped with the Argentinean’s absence.

Did you know?

Only Robert Lewandoski had a better minute-to-goal ratio than Luis Muriel this season. The Poland international netted one goal every 60 minutes, Muriel one every 65.

Read the full 2020-21 Serie A season review here.

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