Coach Gian Piero Gasperini believes the whole country will ‘support’ Atalanta against Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and hopes to make them proud. ‘We’re sort of like a national team’.
The Orobici coach prepares for his most important match since taking over in Bergamo and thinks his team are concentrated and motivated enough to perform against PSG in the Last Eight.
Coach Gian Piero Gasperini believes the whole country will ‘support’ Atalanta against Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and hopes to make them proud. ‘We’re sort of like a national team’.
The Orobici coach prepares for his most important match since taking over in Bergamo and thinks his team are concentrated and motivated enough to perform against PSG in the Last Eight.
“Now, we are here, there’s a great adrenaline,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia. “We play in a very important stadium, the temple of Benfica, too bad there won’t be any fans.
“We carry with us so many emotions from recent months. What happens on the pitch is what counts, but the motivation we bring could be useful.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction, even if we are focused on tomorrow’s match.”
The 62-year-old conceded that La Dea were a bit lucky to advance from the group stage.
“In the group stage we had some luck, especially in the tie between Dinamo Zagreb and Shakhtar Donetsk.
“But then we were good at getting important results.
Atalanta are the only Italian team left in the competition and the Nerazzurri coach thinks the whole country will cheer for La Dea.
“We are sorry to be the only Italian team left, we thought Juventus had a great opportunity to go through.
“Napoli did well against Barcelona, they must be satisfied because they played a great match.
“Juventus’ absence was more surprising. Now, we are the only ones left, we will try to do well.
“I hope to go on vacation as late as possible. We know that all of Italy will support us and that’s very important for us. We’re sort of like a national team and we hope to do well.”