What was the precise moment that Gian Piero Gasperini allowed himself to start believing? Was it at Anfield, watching Mario Pasalic casually side-foot home the goal that put Atalanta 3-0 ahead against Liverpool? Or during the second leg in Bergamo, seeing his team glide through the final 45 minutes of the tie without any truly nervy moments despite Mo Salah’s first-half penalty?
Perhaps it was only after the referee’s whistle had confirmed Atalanta’s place in the semi-final. Not until Sunday did we hear him acknowledge it publicly. “At this moment, the Europa League is the objective we are holding too most tightly,” said Gasperini at the end of a 2-0 Serie A win over Empoli. “We need to stay focused though. Marseille are a strong team.”
Atalanta, founded in 1907, have only once before reached a European semi-final, losing to Belgium’s Mechelen in the 1987-88 Cup Winners’ Cup. The Bergamese club had not even participated in continental competition for more than a quarter of a century before Gasperini guided them to a fourth-place domestic finish in 2017.
Even after qualifying for Europe in six of the past seven seasons, the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with clubs such as Liverpool can feel like a thrilling novelty. That might also be why Gasperini had up till now been reluctant to acknowledge his ambitions. Asked about this season’s objectives in January, he insisted that “the Coppa Italia is the most realistic target.” Gasperini reiterated that thought when the question came up again in February, March and even the start of this month.
“It is the one achievable trophy, and the only one Atalanta have ever lifted – all the way back in 1963,” he said on 2 April. “I’ve never thought of being able to win the Scudetto ahead of rivals who finish with 90 or 100 points. Nor of winning the Champions or Europa League.”
If a week is a long time in politics, just imagine how much can happen in four weeks of a packed football calendar. One day after Gasperini made that remark, Gasperini’s Atalanta lost the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final against Fiorentina. Next came a league defeat to relegation-battlers Cagliari. Both results were merited. His team looked exhausted.
And then, that night at Anfield. Ninety minutes that will stay with this team for a lifetime. Atalanta had won there before, in 2020, but that was a group stage game in an empty stadium during football’s pandemic era. This was a knock-out tie played to a full house at one of Europe’s most imposing venues.
How could a result like that not lend you a little extra swagger? Atalanta did draw their next league game against Verona, allowing a 2-0 lead to slip somewhat carelessly, but even here Gianluca Scamacca’s self-serve volley for the opening goal spoke to a renewed sense of confidence.
Scamacca was already in a nice run of form, having scored in both legs of the Europa League last-16 win over Sporting, and he delivered again in Wednesday’s Coppa Italia win over Fiorentina. After having a 25-yard thunderbolt disallowed in the first-half, he turned the tie instead with an acrobatic scissor kick.
Atalanta’s top scorer across all competitions, Scamacca will be suspended for the Coppa Italia final against Juventus. Gasperini took the opportunity to remind us that his team is not reliant on any individual on Sunday, resting the striker together with several other first-choice starters and seeing his team win confidently.
Hardly a surprising result: Empoli are 17th for a reason, though their form has improved since hiring the relegation escape expert Davide Nicola as manager in January. The Tuscans have scored the joint-fewest goals in Serie A, but a miserly defensive mindset has yielded them some surprising results, including a pair of 1-0 wins over Napoli and a draw at Juventus.
They attempted to dig in again here, carving out a couple of half-chances on the break, but a foul by Giuseppe Pezzella on El Bilal Touré shortly before half-time gave Pasalic the chance to put Atalanta in front from the penalty spot. Goalkeeper Elia Caprile, a 22-year-old who has had a quietly impressive season since replacing Guglielmo Vicario, got a hand to the shot but could not keep it out.
Ademola Lookman sealed the points for Atalanta soon after the interval, spinning away from Bartosz Bereszynski near halfway and advancing to the edge of the box before drilling a left-footed shot into the bottom corner. Another perfect picture of the mindset Gasperini seeks to encourage, asking his players to back themselves and engage with the one-on-one battles.
Victory allowed Atalanta to close to within two points of fifth-placed Roma, who drew at Napoli. They have a game in hand on the Giallorossi, and a game against them still to play next month.
These teams are all at once battling one another for a Champions League spot and each hoping that they might help the other to secure theirs. By both progressing to the Europa League semi-finals, they have already helped Serie A to earn a bonus fifth entry into the continent’s top club competition for next season. Now they have a chance to make it six.
The winner of the Europa League is guaranteed a spot in the Champions League, but there had been some ambiguity about what should happen if either Roma or Atalanta triumphed while also finishing fifth in Serie A. Uefa clarified to Italian reporters last week that in such circumstances the bonus spot would go to the team in sixth. Any improvement to the chances of Champions League qualification is a boon to Atalanta. Yet the hunger for a more tangible prize to crown this remarkable chapter is most pressing of all.
The scale of Gasperini’s achievements have received more international attention in the days since conquering Anfield, but still bear repeating. Atalanta had only qualified for Europe four times in their history before he took charge in 2016, and their one previous semi-final came during a season when the club was competing in Serie B.
Frosinone 3-0 Salernitana, Lazio 1-0 Verona, Juventus 0-0 Milan, Lecce 1-1 Monza, Fiorentina 5-1 Sassuolo, Napoli 2-2 Roma, Atalanta 2-0 Empoli, Bologna 1-1 Udinese, Inter 2-0 Torino
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Frosinone 3-0 Salernitana, Lazio 1-0 Verona, Juventus 0-0 Milan, Lecce 1-1 Monza, Fiorentina 5-1 Sassuolo, Napoli 2-2 Roma, Atalanta 2-0 Empoli, Bologna 1-1 Udinese, Inter 2-0 Torino
He has kept his team performing at this level with a constantly changing cast of players. Long gone are many authors of his first European qualification – Papu Gómez, Franck Kessié, Remo Freuler, and Leonardo Spinazzola. Other key performers have come and gone in the years since – Josip Ilicic, Duván Zapata, Robin Gosens, Luis Muriel, Cristian Romero and Rasmus Højlund.
Somehow, Gasperini is always able to shape fresh treasure out of the flecks of gold he finds in a steady stream of new arrivals. Scamacca, signed for around €25m from West Ham, has dominated recent headlines but Charles De Ketelaere has also thrived after a dismal year at Milan, while returning players such as Lookman and Teun Koopmeiners go from strength to strength.
Atalanta’s win over Liverpool prompted fresh questions about how Gasperini has been overlooked for so long by wealthier clubs. The notion that his brief, ill-starred chapter at Inter in 2011 should rule him out of future opportunities is nonsense. He made mistakes, but the lack of support from ownership was glaring in an era when journalists openly ridiculed him for believing a title-chasing club could play with a back three.
That experience helps to explain why Gasperini has been happy to stay where he is, at a club that has always worked to his vision for how the game should be played, even while accepting the need to generate profits from player sales. The success of that approach is plain for all to see. All that is missing is a trophy to reward eight years of hard work.