Milan (AFP)
Atalanta, eliminated at the last minute by Paris Saint-Germain (2-1) Wednesday in the quarter-final of the Champions League, will now look to the next Serie A season ... and C1, because Bergamo, sensation of this European campaign, will return to shine.
"Bitter end", summarized the newspaper Corriere di Bergamo after this cruel outing, while Atalanta had led in the score until the 90th minute against PSG and its stars. "Atalanta held and dreamed" before bowing to "a team studded with millionaires".
"There are a lot of regrets," Atalanta general manager Luca Percassi told Sky Sport. "We are proud of these guys, of what they have shown during this whole season which is really different from the others," he added, the day after a game that ended a spectacular run.
As much in C1, for its very first participation, as in Serie A (78 points, 98 goals scored), Atalanta has just achieved the best season in its history, in a city among the most affected, in Italy, by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“There is enormous satisfaction in having represented our city as best as possible,” said Percassi. "We go home with regrets, but aware of having made the whole population happy" by having accumulated very good matches and spectacular goals.
- Bergamo finally wants to host matches -
Nicknamed "La Dea" (The Goddess), Atalanta has won only one major trophy in Italian football, the 1963 Italian Cup. But the club, which had qualified for this Champions League in finishing 3rd in Serie A last season, has just done it again in 2020.
The Champions League makes it possible to "compare with the best in the world. Knowing that we will be able to participate again next season is another source of pride and satisfaction", insisted Percassi.
The Bergamo club also hopes that its stadium, the "Atleti Azzurri d'Italia Stadium", renovated this season, will be able to host European matches when the next C1 begins, after a year of exile at the San Siro stadium, in Milan.
"We now want to play European matches at home. An inspection is scheduled for September 7 and 8 by UEFA to assess the progress of the site, we are confident that it will go well," said Percassi.
No Italian club has managed to win the Cup with big ears for ten years and the triumph of Inter Milan of José Mourinho in 2010. This season, Atalanta was the last Italian survivor, following the elimination of the Juventus, victorious for the last time in the C1 in 1996, against Lyon in the round of 16.
Inter Milan, now led by Antonio Conte, will play him a Europa League semi-final on Monday night against Shakhtar Donetsk.
© 2020 AFP