Atalanta have been left cursing the latest international break with Celtic’s Euro rivals hitting red hot form.
Brendan Rodgers and his troops head for the Serie A side following the break in domestic football for matchday three of their Champions League league phase adventure. The Hoops got off the mark perfectly in the opening round of fixtures smashing Slovan Bratislava 5-1 at a packed out Parkhead, but they were handed a grim reality check about the quality of opposition at the top level as Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund inflicted a 7-1 hammering on the Scottish champions.
They bounced back to winning ways at the weekend – despite not being at the top of their game – as they came back from a goal down to secure the three points thanks to Nicolas Kuhn‘s late winner. They maintained their perfect record at the top alongside Aberdeen.
Atalanta themselves hit the goal trail at the weekend after the hammered Genoa 5-1 on their own turf. Mateo Retegui was a hat-trick hero in Bergamo in a major warning to the Scottish champions ahead of their visit later this month. Boss Gian Piero Gasperini has admitted the break comes at the wrong time for his side as they followed up a midweek 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League with the big Serie A triumph.
Speaking to DAZN, the Atalanta boss said: “Obviously, it was a great performance. We are in a good period of form, we beat Shakhtar, but we still see moments like against Como when we just fall apart. We are playing every three days, there’s going to be some dips in energy levels, but when we’re on it like this evening, we can fight it out with anyone.”
On the break, he added: “The timing isn’t great. Even before Como, we had some good performances against Arsenal and Fiorentina , so there have been definite improvements. The result often negatively affects reading of the performance.
“We have 10 new arrivals, it takes time to get them settled in. The more we play, the easier it will be for them. The best example is Retegui, but many others are doing well too.”