Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi admits they are far from at full strength against Inter tonight and losing Teun Koopmeiners to Juventus was ‘a cause of great regret.’
It kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).
“We are playing against the reigning Champions of Italy, we arrive missing a few players for a series of reasons, but will give our all with the hope that most of the squad can be available after the break for international duty,” Percassi told DAZN.
La Dea had a rough summer on and off the field, as they lost to Real Madrid and Torino, around a 4-0 victory away to Lecce, and the injuries continue to pile up.
Nicolò Zaniolo and Isak Hien are the latest additions to the absentee list, making this an even more difficult fixture than it would’ve been already, but Lazar Samardzic and Raoul Bellanova make their full debuts for Atalanta.
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Ademola Lookman is only on the bench, as he returned to training on Wednesday after trying to force a transfer.
“We are faced with situations that we did not expect,” confessed Percassi.
“The first was the Scamacca injury, which was such bad luck. We worked to reinforce the squad.”
Above all, Teun Koopmeiners managed to force through his move to Juventus for €60m including add-ons.
“Our objective was to keep everyone, but it was not possible for the well-known situations and that is a cause of great regret.”