Gian Piero Gasperini took the acclaim from the travelling Atalanta support at Anfield after pulling off one of the greatest results in the club’s history. La Dea were exceptional in their 3-0 away victory over Liverpool in last week’s Europa League quarter-final first leg with Jurgen Klopp’s team unable to stop the Bergamo outfit.
Last night at Gewiss Stadium, Atalanta sealed the deal, staving off Liverpool’s dominant possession in a 1-0 defeat which saw them through to the Europa League semi-finals on aggregate.
Liverpool appeared tired. It’s possible their injury crisis from earlier in the season finally caught up with them, but Atalanta more than made the most of the opportunity. Indeed, the Italian visitors to Merseyside were relentless. The 3-0 first-leg scoreline was a true reflection of how well they played at the fortress of an English soccer powerhouse.
Gasperini has been in place as Atalanta head coach for eight years and in that time, he has achieved an incredible level of success. Until Gasperini’s appointment in 2016, Atalanta were traditionally a team commonly positioned in the bottom half of the Serie A table. As recently as 2011, they were a Serie B club.
Under Gasperini, Atalanta have been transformed. They have finished no lower than eighth under the veteran manager and have become a regular fixture in continental competition. In the 2019/20 season, Atalanta came within a few minutes of knocking Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League and into the semi-finals.
The elimination of Liverpool from the Europa League is another statement. Klopp’s team were considered among the favourites to win the competition this season, but they were exposed by Atlanta on their own pitch at Anfield. Many predicted a remarkable comeback in Bergamo for Liverpool, but during the course of the match, it never truly seemed a threat.
With Klopp set to depart Liverpool at the end of the season, the Anfield club is on the lookout for a new manager. Ruben Amorim, Robert De Zerbi and Julian Nagelsmann have all been linked with the job, but Gasperini is never mentioned in the same breath as the elite. He deserves more credit for what he has done at Atalanta.
At 66 years old, it’s unlikely Gasperini will get another shot at a job at an elite level club, but his style of soccer is modern in its approach. Atalanta play an aggressive game that puts opponents under pressure in and out of possession. Liverpool found this out to their cost in last week’s Europa League quarter-final first leg.
This attack-minded style of play puts Gasperini at odds with the stereotypical identity of Italian soccer. The 66-year-old has experimented with different formations and ideas over the course of his career, but has remained true to his belief that proactive soccer should be favoured.
It’s this mindset that has made Atalanta a force to be reckoned with, and one he has imbued into his players and the spirit of the team. When discussing the mid-game team talk with Atalanta down 1-0, Gasperini recounted, “At half-time, I asked them if they wanted to drop back a bit and defend deeper if they were feeling the pressure, but they said absolutely not! That is a trophy for me because they think like me, they are in positions and approaches that they enjoy.”
In truth, that pride exudes beyond his players and his team to the whole of Bergamo. Atalanta is a club that feels like a family and is now interwoven with the fabric of the community. In his post-match interview, Gasperini highlighted what it meant for the collective, saying “When a club like ours manages to get results well beyond the history of Atalanta and Bergamo, I have to consider this exceptional for my career, for Bergamo and for everyone.”
And with that, Atalanta are off to the Europe League semi-finals to battle a Marseille side that scraped out a 4-2 penalty win over Benfica in the quarter-finals. Marseille are deeply flawed, currently struggling to secure a European position from 9th in the Ligue Un table. That matchup makes a push to the final a very real possibility for Atalanta.
With the likes of Gianluca Scamacca in sharp form, Davide Zappacosta doggedly running the sidelines, and de Roon playing maestro in the midfield, Atalanta have the pieces to lift the trophy. Mario Pasalic and Charles De Ketelaere coming off the bench showed just how effectively Gasperini can tinker with his lineup – and De Ketelaere in particular has been an example of Gasperini’s ability as a coach. The Belgian was washed up after a failed move to AC Milan, but has been harnessed by the Atalanta manager this season. De Ketelaere is playing with confidence and influencing matches in a way he was never able to do for the Rossoneri.
Gasperini ticks so many boxes as a modern tactical thinker and an excellent man-manager that it’s confusing he doesn’t always get the credit he deserves – at least outside Italian soccer. The elimination of Liverpool from this season’s Europa League by Atalanta highlights his brilliance, and a trophy would cement it.
