It hasn’t been easy for Atalanta to get above their regional status in recent years, but a slump in form could cost them another crack at the Champions League. Let’s get on with the latest Bet365 news.
It’s not going too well
In the modern Serie A saga, La Dea, a little town club from Lombardy, has become a major player and is currently 8/1 to take the Europa League title this season. It was going so well for them.
When Gian Piero Gasperini and his men arrived at Villarreal for their last Champions League group game, they were in good spirits after an impressive autumn that included victories away from home against both Juventus and Napoli.
After all, this was their 3rd consecutive campaign in Europe’s top competition, and after making it to the knockout stage in each of the former two, they would have been extremely confident. As a side note, Villarreal, too, was on top.
If you missed out on the recent 365bet report, Atalanta was knocked out of the Champions League and relegated to the Europa League after a 3-2 defeat by Barcelona. This match will be shown on various live streaming football highlights sites including 365 bet, when Sampdoria visits Bergamo looking to reignite their top-four dreams.
Atalanta has failed to win a league game at home. However, they have currently rated 4/11 shots vs a Samp side that has stemmed the bleeding with two victories in three.
Hard work is paying off
This year, Bergamo honored Gian Piero Gasperini, an official resident of the city. Arriving in 2016 with a mixed CV that included victories at Crotone and Genoa but disastrous flops at Palermo and Inter Milan, there wasn’t much excitement.
As soon as he stepped on the field for the first time, he was already feeling the weight of expectation. It was an audacious move that could have backfired, but it paid off, as well as the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
That season, Atalanta finished fourth in Serie A and qualified for Europe for the very first time in 27 years after losing just one of their final 18 games. His team finished in seventh place in 2017-18, and then it all came together for the famed taskmaster and workaholic.
2018-19 was a season in which they made it to the Coppa Italia final, topped the scoring charts with 77 goals, and came within one point of Milan giants to qualify for the Champions League.
Even better, Atalanta went on to score 98 goals in the next season, scoring seven goals three times and battering Milan 5-0. They were no longer just fun to watch; they were a legitimate danger to the existing order, making it all the way to the Champions League’s final eight.
Keeping his head straight on
La Dea finished third in Serie A for the third year in a row under Gasperini, who has never strayed from his elevated 3-4-3 shape and has never ceased demanding so much from his team. Real Madrid was too formidable for them in the 16th round of the Champions League.
This year’s unheralded collection of players, a side lacking in superstars but high in group spirit, organization, and attacking drive, once again showed their consistency.
Merih Derimal, Berat Djimsiti, Davide Zappacosta, Duvan Zapata, and Remo Freuler are among of the team’s most important players, all of whom have excellent goalscoring records. In their very first 17 Serie A games, they only lost twice, but that was not the case in the Champions League, where they were eliminated at the pool stages with a single win.
Despite losing their final group game of the season against Villarreal, they bounced back to beat Verona 2-1 in mid-December and move up to third place in the table.
It’s been such a grind since then. Aside from their Coppa Italia defeat to Fiorentina, they had only won one of their previous eight league games, leaving them outside the top 4 and hoping to stay there.
