Insulting and ugly. It is Gian Piero Gasperini's first comments on the controversy that his own statements have created.

The coach told Gazzetta dello sports this weekend that he had symptoms of covid-19 when he was on the sidelines during the return game against Valencia in the Champions League in March. This caused Valencia to react.

"Such action, if so, would have put most people at risk during the trip to - and the stay in - Valencia," the Spanish club wrote in a statement.

- It's very insulting. I had pain, but never fever or any problems with the lungs. When I left Bergamo I felt good, but felt a little worse in the evening and the day after, says Gasperini in a new interview with Italian Sky Sport on Thursday.

After the match, Gasperini isolated for three weeks at Bergamolaget's training facility. A later antibody test confirmed that he had been infected with the coronavirus.

- I know I followed the rules. I was quarantined just like everyone else. I was not tested then, but in May it was discovered that I had been infected.

The match in Valencia was played in front of empty stands, but the first meeting between the clubs was seen by 40,000 visitors to San Siro in Milan, which is believed to have caused many infected in Spain and Italy. The city of Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori later described the match as a biological bomb.

Atalanta won the double against Valencia with a total of 8–4. A week after the last meeting, Valencia announced that more than a third of the squad and staff had tested positive for the new corona virus.

Atalanta is one of four teams so far ready for the quarterfinals, but the future of the season's tournament is still uncertain. Uefa has the hope of being able to play the Champions League and Europa League before the summer is over, but several question marks remain and no dates have been set.

- The Champions League is fantastic for us and it took us a long time to get there. We will see how it goes, but we are very motivated for continued play. Until then, Serie A will be an important test, says Gasperini.

The Italian league will resume on June 20. Atalanta is ahead of the reboot in fourth place in the table and currently has a place in next season's Champions League as well.

CLIP: Here Sebastian Andersson (Union Berlin) makes the first goal after the restart:

Javascript is turned off

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Learn more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser. We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Learn more about browser support