Duvan Zapata believes Atalanta ‘tried everything’ against Villarreal, but the bad start ultimately proved too much to rescue their Champions League dream.
This is only the third ever participation in the tournament, yet they were close to reaching the Round of 16 for the third season running.
They needed a win in Bergamo to go through, but found themselves 3-0 down and the late comeback for 3-2 was not enough.
Champions League | Atalanta 2-3 Villarreal: Unlucky Dea drop out
“We are disappointed, but also feel we gave everything we had,” Duvan Zapata told Amazon Prime Italia.
“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.”
Villarreal were 2-0 up at the break and had taken the lead within three minutes.
“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 will go into the Europa League Round of 32.