He came on and scored the winner, a goal that allowed Atalanta to win at the Johan Cruijff Arena against Ajax. Luis Muriel was accurate and then congratulated the whole team, especially the defence: “We deserved the qualification”. Here is the interview with him.

“The team produced a strong display, the three defenders did excellent today, proving once again that this team know how to defend. It wasn’t easy to keep a clean sheet against a team who play well like Ajax. I think we had a great game defensively, then I had the chance to come on, find the space and score. But if I had to choose the MVP of this match, I’d say the team, who did great today. We deserved to qualify after what we did”.

You feared each other in the first half, as a qualification for the UCL last 16 was at stake. Then they tried to speed up in the second half, but then Atalanta emerged.

“Yes, it wasn’t easy, because they only had one result to get through. We could manage the game differently [from them]. They didn’t want to take risks in the first half, as they could speed up the game in the final minutes. We instead tried to keep it on our side, trying to take advantage of our plays and the spaces. We did great”.

Luis, from 1 to 10, how happy are you?

“12 right now. I’m really happy for the squad, as they deserve it, as there’ve been many rumours that have tried to create insurrections inside the group, which is not good. We deserved such joy right now, now we have to focus on the league and try to be consistent even there”.