Gian Piero Gasperini admits Atalanta have ‘thrown away’ too many leads this season and the 2-2 draw with Verona has them on their toes for Liverpool in the Europa League.
La Dea were still riding the wave of enthusiasm from the 3-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield and dominated the first half here too, leading 2-0 through a Gianluca Scamacca scorcher on the half-volley and Ederson running into space.
However, they wasted too many more chances and began to visibly run out of steam as the game wore on.
Verona scored twice in a four-minute spell to complete the comeback with Darko Lazovic and Tijjani Noslin, meaning they climb out of the bottom three and Atalanta are without a home win in two months.
“It was a good game, but clearly there are regrets we wasted an opportunity when 2-0 up and could’ve challenged for a more prestigious European place,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.
“However, Verona played with great intensity and I think it was a very good game of football. I don’t think our fitness levels dropped, as late on we had important chances to retake the lead. Unfortunately, we have seen several times this season that we threw away in a very short space of time.
“I also doubt we were distracted by Liverpool, as this was an important match to close up on Roma and Bologna. It would’ve been fundamental to win this, at least for Champions League ambitions.
“There is another competition on Thursday, but in Serie A unfortunately we cannot deny that we wasted a lot of opportunities by conceding two goals in a few minutes.”
Serie A setbacks
La Dea have just one win in their last seven Serie A games, which was another big 3-0 away to Napoli.
There is a definite trend in Serie A this weekend, as relegation-threatened teams picked up big results, as Cagliari held Inter 2-2 at San Siro, Sassuolo stalled Milan 3-3 and Frosinone grabbed a 2-2 away to Napoli.
Udinese were also 1-1 with Roma when that game was suspended due to Evan Ndicka feeling unwell.
“There are advantages too to playing this many tournaments, but disadvantages are undeniable too, as it is not easy to maintain the same mental and physical shape.
“Serie A is also very tough, as every team is well-drilled, they have values, pace and heart, you just need to see the results from this round. If it was an Atalanta problem, I would be more worried, but it’s just what our league is like.”
Gasperini was asked if the Atalanta squad had sufficient depth to go all the way in Serie A, the Europa League and the Coppa Italia, where they are in the semi-final against Fiorentina.
“I don’t think Atalanta expected to be in all three tournaments in April. We started with a squad that expected to have a good season, but this one has gone beyond expectations in every competition.
“It is also worth noting that in our last 12 games, eight of them have been away from home. It has been a very intense period with a lot of travel, we also had a run of seeing Inter, Milan, Juventus, Bologna, Napoli, so we hoped to improve our tally today against Verona, but it didn’t work out like that.
“We decided not to favour one tournament over another, we will try to do our best in them all. We’ll see how it goes, but some of our players are like Highlander, they keep going.”
Liverpool not finished yet
It has to be a warning to Atalanta going into the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final on Thursday, as even with a 3-0 lead, the tie is certainly not over.
“We saw tonight Verona were able to score two goals in four minutes. I’ve seen Liverpool score three in six minutes in a Champions League Final against Liverpool! We knew after Anfield it wasn’t over, but Thursday will be an historic appointment for the city, the club and our players.
“We know another great performance is needed, but the objective is so prestigious that we’ll find the energy.”