The eagerness and commitment have never lacked but the losing streak has stolen the team’s confidence and good spirit. A match that started well saw again the Nerazzurri give way to the opponents. There are six matches left to play till the end of the season and, as Gian Piero Gasperini said: “We must make a breakthrough”.

Gian Piero Gasperini, what is happening to Atalanta?

“It’s difficult to comment on this moment. Atalanta are not the luckiest team, not in the first halves of a game right now at least. They’ve lost a bit of confidence and motivation, as they’ve never failed to show their commitment. The lads have always been fair and precise in this. They gave their all until the end even today. However, it’s been evident for a few weeks that, despite playing with the utmost commitment and eagerness, we are the losers. We absolutely need to make a breakthrough from now until the end of the league, since our season has been good in many respects for a long time. Hence, we have to finish it in a dignified way. We owe it to the fans, the club, ourselves and all. It’s what we have to try to do from here until the end.”

You said that Atalanta are not so lucky, and there are incidents as well: if there’s a second yellow card to be shown, it has to be shown.

“Yes, that is the outcome of the second half of the season. We could have been awarded a penalty even the other evening against Leipzig… I don’t want to stick to this, but these incidents change the game. They can give a boost. We’re not lucky in this respect. As for the rest, we certainly have other kinds of difficulties. We collected too little given the team’s efforts over the last few weeks.”

It’s time for the final matches of the season, what will Atalanta and Gian Piero Gasperini have to do to get more out of the players?

“As I said, we have to finish this season well, in a dignified manner, because we owe it to all the people I mentioned earlier. We have to play one game at a time, trying to get a few results to end the campaign well.”

This game gave you a smile,

– “Scalvini, fantastic” –

thanks to Giorgio Scalvini.

“Good. Atalanta should think about that for their future. That’s where they should from thinking about the future.”

Is European football to be put aside?

“Not mathematically. We’ll play each game trying to win it until the maths allow us to do that. It’s clear we’ve missed a lot of opportunities, hence it’s difficult to comment on European football this evening.”