Gasperini makes Celtic comment as Atalanta score six after UCL stalemate | OneFootball

Atalanta delivered a dominating 6-1 win over Verona in Serie A, bouncing back from a Champions League draw with Celtic. Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini commented after the game that he feels his side could have delivered a similar score if they had scored early against Celtic.

Goals from Marten de Roon, Mateo Retegui, Charles De Ketelaere, and Ademola Lookman fueled the impressive performance, with Lookman contributing two goals and multiple assists. Verona’s Amin Sarr scored a late consolation, but the team suffered a fifth loss in six games. The win marked Atalanta coach Gasperini’s 400th game, showcasing the team’s offensive strength.

“If we had scored one against Celtic it would’ve been better, but the performances were very similar. The team is in good shape, we had a lot of quality, precision and exchanged passes in attack,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.

“There was still regret left from the Celtic match, as if we had scored one then it could’ve turned into a result like this. We can’t do anything about it now, we have to keep going.”

“You do learn from the intensity of those European matches, the only difference with Celtic was that we scored early. It happens sometimes, we did it against Genoa, while we saw Borussia Dortmund fire seven goals past Celtic and then concede five in Madrid.”

Gasperini has put a gloss over his side’s attacking display against Celtic as for all they had, they were limited to only a handful of decent chances. Celtic were robust and compact and rode the storm well. The game was not as open as the defeat in Germany, with Brendan learning from that humbling to get a result on the road.

It is all the more impressive that Celtic held out against the Serie A side given their clinical performances this season. Atalanta have shown that they are capable of cutting teams open and really putting them to the sword but Celtic set up to frustrate and escaped with a well-deserved point.