We worked harder than expected but in the end, with tooth and nail, the Empoli obstacle fell and for theAtalanta another victory arrived and once again the top of the standings. There are 11 consecutive championship successes for the Bergamo team, as Inzaghi did with Inter and Spalletti with Napoli in recent years before winning the scudetto. “This is statistics, but when they had 11 victories in a row they took a 10 point lead over everyone else, instead this year there are five-six teams within one or two games – he said Gasperini on Sky Sport after the match -. In my opinion we played a great match: we conceded a goal from the throw-in and we were surprised because we were watching a ball in the stands, then there was the penalty when we had turned the game on its head, the famous VAR penalties which were very questionable, And being able to win it again was a huge merit for me“.
“Retegui doesn't seem serious. De Ketelaere is confident”
The coach then analyzed some individual performances: “Pasalic, as time goes by, suits him even better – he explained -, then he is a very flexible boy, intelligent from a tactical point of view. Today he had an excellent match , he's someone who also makes you play well, he doesn't have the tackling and energy of De Roon but he distributes play. It was already like that last year. De Ketelaere? In my head I am convinced that he will score many goalsbecause now he has gained confidence. Now he shoots very high, he reads the times well, but the second goal was extraordinary because he strongly wanted it. Only when you have this type of confidence can you resolve the game which at that point was difficult and needed his own play. Retegui he had this muscle problem, let's evaluate tomorrow: It doesn't seem particularly serious but he will have to sit still for a few days. Zaniolo was decisive in Lookman's goal with the assist, in matches like these the technical quality up front counts a lot. We created a lot of opportunities, some situations even went badly for us, then Empoli haven't conceded many goals in this championship and the ones we scored were well done.”