Atalanta are ready to take the field in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League knockout round play-offs that is held at the Gewiss Stadium. In the pre-match interview, coach Gian Piero Gasperini talked about the opponent, the competition and the goals: “Olympiacos are a good team”.

Gian Piero Gasperini, from Serie A to the Europa League: do these two different competitions have similar difficulties?

“Well, yes, especially because these are knockout matches. You get to play the first and the second leg within a week and a result is determined afterwards, while the league is certainly longer. You have much more time to make up for possible missteps.”

What’s the hidden difficulty of tomorrow’s match?

“We’ll take on a team that are firmly at the top of their league. When you play in European competitions, you always find teams that are well prepared. So, the level of difficulty is very high, even though the Europa League, right now, is not on the same level as the Champions League,
but then gets difficult and prestigious along the way.”

What do you expect to see from Olympiacos?

“I expect to see a good team, we had the chance to follow and watch them. They’re used to winning, They never lose in the league. They’ve often performed well in European competitions. We know how difficult this match is. We’ll need a good performance and I think the qualification will be determined in the second leg in Athens.”

There’s also this new rule that away goals are no longer worth double. Is this an extra glitch? How do you see this?

“I think it’s right. The difficulty is even bigger because you need to win. Draws aren’t enough, with away goals. You need to win the match to go through.”

The Atalanta side playing in the Europa League will differ from the one we saw in the Champions League, as some of the key players will change. So the opponents will have fewer points of reference?

“I think the opponents know us as much as we know them. We had the opportunity to watch them today, we could see everything. I think this will be another kind of match, which both teams consider important. The league is very important for us at the moment, as things are getting heated. However, we have never done the math, so, we won’t do it this time either.”