Atalanta did try to straighten out the match against Roma but didn’t manage to do it, rounding off the last match of the calendar year at the Gewiss Stadium with a defeat. The same had happened in the matches against Milan and Villarreal when the Nerazzurri conceded a goal in the opening minutes. It happened against Roma, too, as the coach Gian Piero Gasperini underlines: “Another match went uphill”.

Gian Piero Gasperini, the number of goals conceded is a bit too high, but the game today went uphill immediately.

“Yes. Sometimes when you lose, it’s better to lose this badly. It makes you react better. Today’s game went uphill early once again and I find it difficult to explain it. We conceded similar goals against Milan, Villarreal and today. Then it becomes more difficult, even if the incidents didn’t go the right way, the goal that made it 2-2 included, which was disallowed, but I have some doubts about it.”

It is difficult to comment on a match like this.

“We have to admit our mistakes, as we should blame ourselves for the first and the third goal as well, which killed off the game. We struggled to get those goals back, we mess up too easily and waste too many chances. Even when we conceded the second goal, we were too unbalanced. These high-level games, against teams who close down at the back and know how to defend, then it gets very difficult to turn it around.”

What happens between the Atalanta side who play away from the Gewiss Stadium and the one who play at home?

“It’s difficult to say, as we have conceded too easily in the opening minutes here, despite there being 4-5 players of us defending, 2 or 3 tackles in a row and we concede. It is penalizing against these kinds of teams.”

You’ll turn your focus to Genoa. You need to move on.

“We need to react immediately and round off the first half of the season. We also have to review the match and analyse it well, as today’s game [didn’t go to plan]. We could have straightened the game out and today could have been a very good day. However, we can’t always complicate our life.”

I know you’re upset, can we make a joke? Is it better to play every three days?

“I don’t know. Some things keep happening. Today we had the chance to come back. We put our effort in losing the game, besides the incidents that certainly don’t help us understand.”