Atalanta, Gian Piero Gasperini reveals backstory on Koopmeiners change

Gian Piero Gasperini reveals the backstory

Nerazzurri rather relaxed in the post-match evening of Atalanta-Sporting, a match whose 1-1 final result allows the team coached by Gian Piero Gasperini to seal first place in the round that is worth direct access to the Europa League round of 16, without going through the playoffs.

Gasperini himself, in a press conference, wanted to shed light on the moment of confusion on the sidelines that ended with the exit of Teun Koopmeiners, who instead, according to the coach's own admission, should have remained on the pitch.

" It was our mistake,” said the Orobici coach, “Scalvini should have gone out and not Koopmeiners. The problem è that I realized it late and the substitution with Miranchuk had already been made…. I wanted to avoid further mistakes and left it that way. In the end è it went well".

The last match of the round, scheduled for Dec. 14 against Rakow, will be totally irrelevant: "Direct qualification gives us a way to think only about the championship,” Gasperini explained. “Right now for us è a very good thing because we have several players who are not 100 percent, there are some flu-like conditions around that are taking away some of our energy".