Gian Piero Gasperini feels Atalanta would be ‘right up there if we always played like the first half’ of their Europa League victory away to Sporting CP.
La Dea dominated the first half in Lisbon and took a 2-0 lead going into the break with goals from Giorgio Scalvini and Matteo Ruggeri, both youth academy products.
It should’ve been a far greater lead and they almost paid for not making more of those chances when Sporting came back at them with a Viktor Gyokeres penalty, but two Juan Musso fingertip saves were decisive.
“We above all did very well in the first half and deserved all three points, but if we were more precise, then we would’ve killed off the game much earlier,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.
“It is especially dangerous at international level to leave the match open. We lost intensity and the penalty sparked Sporting into life, but in the end we held control fairly well.
“Ruggeri is remarkable for his consistency, while Scalvini was tired late on and I preferred to replace him with Palomino. Along with many positives from this evening, there are also a few things we need to look at, but it always helps to win.”
The performance was rather similar to Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Juventus, in that Atalanta dominated for long periods, but did not make all of that pressure count with goals.
“We are in a good period of form and we are improving. Now we need to do better when it comes time to do battle. There are many games and some might lose intensity with fatigue, so we have to get more players back to full fitness.”
Gianluca Scamacca made his comeback off the bench and looked rather rusty, while Ademola Lookman was a constant threat, but also far from clinical.
“Lookman had perhaps his best performance of the season and also one of the best for Atalanta. He created many dangerous situations and is improving, but I don’t know if he will be able to replicate last year’s goal tally.
“If we always played like the first half, we’d be right up there. It was good that we were able to suffer under pressure in the second half, but players like Scamacca, Holm and De Ketelaere need to find full fitness and improve their mentality too.”
Atalanta are now top of the group with a 100 per cent record of six points, followed by Sporting CP and Sturm Graz on three, while Champions of Poland Rakow still have zero points and goals scored.