Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi insists ‘just being here represents a great victory’ and is ‘very sad’ Teun Koopmeiners opted to miss the UEFA Super Cup showdown against Real Madrid.
It kicks off at the National Stadium in Warsaw at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
If there is no winner after 90 minutes, then it goes straight to a penalty shoot-out rather than requiring extra time.
“We are having some incredible nights for the history of Atalanta and this is another emotional moment. Thinking that we are playing against Real Madrid for silverware is just extraordinary,” Percassi told Sky Sport Italia.
“Football gives you incredible emotions, there’s no time to enjoy them, there are always new adventures to face. We often find ourselves talking about these events and it is difficult to experience them at the time, but it’s a unique experience too.”
Atalanta missing top stars
There is also sadness that La Dea cannot face this game at full strength, because of injuries to Gianluca Scamacca, Giorgio Scalvini, Rafael Toloi and Nicolò Zaniolo.
Above all, Koopmeiners did not make the trip because he is trying to force through a transfer to Juventus.
“Both for Scamacca and Scalvini, these are very unlucky situations to two fantastic lads. As for Koop, we are very, very fond of him and we are very sad that he is not here tonight doing what he always did,” added Percassi.
“We love Koop, we know what he gave us over the years, what he received from Atalanta too. These are still young lads, they can fall into making mistakes and this is one of those situations. We remain very fond of him.”
Real Madrid are undoubtedly the favourites, but then so were unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League Final before losing 3-0 to La Dea with an Ademola Lookman hat-trick.
“Just being here today represents a great victory for Atalanta. We are facing the best team in the world, the biggest club in the world, and we hope to just make a good impression.
“As a football fan, when you see these great players in front of you, it helps you realise the strength of the opponents. However, Atalanta deserve to be here, we earned our chance to participate against the biggest team in the world with hard work on the field.”