VfB Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness has expressed huge respect for Wednesday’s Champions League opponents Atalanta but still hopes to get a result.
Atalanta won the last Europa League 3-0 against Bayer Leverkusen, which marked the only season defeat for the Bundesliga and German Cup champions.
The Bergamo club coached by Gian Piero Gasperini is yet to concede a goal after three Champions League matches – having garnered five points, one more than Stuttgart – and are coming off an impressive 3-0 Seria A triumph at leaders Napoli.
“I want to express the utmost respect and praise for my opposite number. They’ve been involved in European football for a number of years, they finished fourth in the league last season and won the Europa League.
“Atalanta have an experienced team that knows all the tricks of the trade. They have a very special style of play, play man-to-man defence throughout and can therefore hurt teams.
“We’re really looking forward to going up against one of the best European teams and want to again demonstrate that we can compete well.”
Stuttgart are coming off a credible 0-0 draw in Leverkusen and also kept a clean sheet in their last Champions League outing when they impressively won 1-0 at another Italian team, Juventus.
Centre back Jeff Chabot is fit to play again, and so is Germany full back Maximilian Mittelstädt who had to be substituted in Leverkusen.
Mittelstädt said of Atalanta: “They don’t give much space and have great individual quality. But we have also got to grips with other teams with such attacking power.
“If we bring our defensive quality onto the pitch, we are always able to create moments for ourselves and get into attacking actions.”
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