All about the next opponent: Interview with Bergamo fan Cettina

After facing the first Euro­pa League fina­list, VfB Stutt­gart now meets Euro­pa League fina­list No. 2. On the fourth match­day of the Cham­pi­ons League, Ata­lan­ta BC is coming to visit. Ata­lan­ta fan Cet­ti­na gives us insight into what’s going on with “La Dea.

With the Red Stri­pe: How is Ata­lan­ta BC’s sea­son going so far? Are you satis­fied?

Cet­ti­na: After the worst start in years, the sea­son is now going quite satis­fac­to­ri­ly; after all, Ata­lan­ta is curr­ent­ly in third place, mana­ged to defeat league lea­der Napo­li, and boasts the most dan­ge­rous offen­se in the league. The team’s three los­ses so far came within the first five match­days, when things on the field weren’t ful­ly cohe­si­ve. Sin­ce then, howe­ver, they’ve found their rhythm, though their per­for­mance in the Cham­pi­ons League could be a bit bet­ter.

Ata­lan­ta was more of a “gray mou­se” in Ita­li­an foot­ball until Gian Pie­ro Gas­pe­ri­ni was appoin­ted coach. Sin­ce then, he’s led “La Dea” to the Cham­pi­ons League and, with last season’s Euro­pa League vic­to­ry, won the club’s first inter­na­tio­nal title. What’s his secret to suc­cess?

Until 2016, Ata­lan­ta Ber­ga­mo was an avera­ge mid-table club that occa­sio­nal­ly faced rele­ga­ti­on and cele­bra­ted no signi­fi­cant suc­ces­ses – and Gian Pie­ro Gas­pe­ri­ni had a simi­lar record until the Euro­pa League vic­to­ry. I’m not sure if there’s a spe­ci­fic secret to his suc­cess or if it’s just a “match made in hea­ven,” but his modern game ele­ments, like dyna­mic tran­si­ti­ons and high pres­sing, have cer­tain­ly con­tri­bu­ted to his suc­cess, as has his straight­for­ward coa­ching style. His inten­si­ve use of wing-backs and con­stant man-mar­king have been defi­ning fea­tures. Espe­ci­al­ly in his ear­ly days, the­se ele­ments weren’t wide­spread in Ita­li­an foot­ball. Sin­ce Gas­pe­ri­ni took over at Ata­lan­ta Ber­ga­mo, the worst sea­son result was eighth place, they’ve finis­hed third three times, and qua­li­fied for the Cham­pi­ons League mul­ti­ple times. I think the big­gest key to suc­cess is that the club has stuck with him and his play­ing style while pro­vi­ding the right play­ers. Ber­ga­mo bene­fits from top-notch scou­ting and one of the best youth aca­de­mies in the coun­try, so Gas­pe­ri­ni always has play­ers who fit his style, which has remain­ed con­sis­tent over the years. He’s also skil­led at con­vin­cing play­ers to com­mit long-term, which pro­vi­des sta­bi­li­ty in the squad.

Ata­lan­ta is now a regu­lar in the Cham­pi­ons League under Gas­pe­ri­ni. What’s the team’s out­look in inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­on? Do they want to go as far as pos­si­ble, or are they just hap­py to par­ti­ci­pa­te?

“Hap­py to par­ti­ci­pa­te” may have been the mind­set a few years ago, but by now they defi­ni­te­ly want to go far and make an impact – after all, it’s no acci­dent they keep qua­li­fy­ing for inter­na­tio­nal play. The trans­fers also show that the club is wil­ling to spend money for suc­cess – this sea­son, Ata­lan­ta has inves­ted more than ever befo­re, and I think the Euro­pa League vic­to­ry has made them hun­gry for more.

With Mateo Rete­gui, the cur­rent top scorer in Serie A plays for your team. What makes him so dan­ge­rous?

Loo­king only at the stats, you can alre­a­dy see that Mateo Rete­gui is a strong scorer, but that’s not all – he has incre­di­ble game intel­li­gence and, most important­ly for Gas­pe­ri­ni, is a fan­ta­stic team play­er with an inten­se pas­si­on for the game. Of cour­se, he’s the focal point, but he also bene­fits from having a strong team behind him. In the penal­ty area, he’s a wea­pon and dif­fi­cult to stop – he curr­ent­ly leads the scoring chart, ahead of Inter’s Thuram and team­ma­te Look­man. Rete­gui has a gre­at eye for goal, is strong in the air, ambi­dex­trous, and phy­si­cal­ly robust. His posi­tio­ning is also impres­si­ve. If you give him an ope­ning in defen­se, he’ll usual­ly exploit it.

El Bil­al Tou­ré was loan­ed from you to us this sum­mer. How do you assess his deve­lo­p­ment so far? Is he part of Atalanta’s long-term plans, or does his future lie else­whe­re?

I think a return to Ber­ga­mo is unli­kely, to put it blunt­ly, becau­se they’re not depen­dent on him. Bes­i­des, he faces strong com­pe­ti­ti­on in his posi­ti­on, and if I had to make a guess, I’d say they’re more likely to focus on Sca­m­ac­ca when he’s fit again. The­re are also rumors that Gas­pe­ri­ni wasn’t enti­re­ly con­vin­ced or enthu­si­a­stic about him, so unfort­u­na­te­ly, I don’t see a future for Tou­ré in Ber­ga­mo. I do hope he finds a club whe­re he recei­ves time and reco­gni­ti­on – per­haps even in Stutt­gart.

How would you descri­be your team’s play­ing style? What are Atalanta’s strengths and weak­ne­s­ses?

Ata­lan­ta Bergamo’s strong offen­se is well-known, though they haven’t shown it as much in the Cham­pi­ons League so far. At the moment, Ata­lan­ta is more impres­si­ve for their defen­si­ve strength – they haven’t con­ce­ded a goal in the Cham­pi­ons League. The offen­se is fle­xi­ble; almost every play­er poses a cer­tain thre­at, and the solid back­li­ne, con­sis­ting of Kolasi­nac, Hien, and Djim­si­ti, has per­for­med well so far. Howe­ver, things aren’t run­ning smooth­ly in all are­as, and a weak­ne­ss beca­me appa­rent against Cel­tic Glas­gow: a flood of unsuc­cessful cros­ses. Finis­hing could be impro­ved, espe­ci­al­ly sin­ce I suspect VfB won’t allow too many chan­ces. There’s room for impro­ve­ment in pre­cis­i­on and deter­mi­na­ti­on, though that’s “com­plai­ning on a high level.” One thing is for sure: it’s always uncom­for­ta­ble to play against Ata­lan­ta Ber­ga­mo. To quo­te Pep Guar­dio­la, “Play­ing against Ata­lan­ta is like going to the den­tist.”

Stutt­gart sur­pri­sed by win­ning away in Turin in the last Cham­pi­ons League match. What do the Swa­bi­ans need to do to beat Ata­lan­ta?

Phew, this might sound sil­ly, but Stutt­gart needs to hold strong at the back, allow few chan­ces, and take advan­ta­ge of their own oppor­tu­ni­ties. That’s easier said than done, but if your defen­se has a good day and mana­ges to take play­ers like Look­man, de Ket­el­ae­re, and Rete­gui out of the game, it’ll be tough for Ata­lan­ta.

Your pre­dic­tion and gut fee­ling for the game?

Of cour­se, I hope for an Ata­lan­ta Ber­ga­mo vic­to­ry, but I fear it might not hap­pen. The Berga­ma­schi are brim­ming with con­fi­dence, but Stutt­gart is eager to com­pe­te inter­na­tio­nal­ly. My pre­dic­tion is a 2–2 draw of the high-qua­li­ty varie­ty, though that doesn’t real­ly help eit­her team.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT

Pic­tu­re: © Fran­ces­co Scaccianoce/Getty Images