Gasperini: ‘Club Brugge took chances better than Atalanta’ in 5-2 aggregate defeat

BERGAMO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 18: Gian Piero Gasperini, Head Coach of Atalanta, looks on prior to the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between Atalanta BC and Club Brugge KV at Gewiss Stadium on February 18, 2025 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images)

Gian Piero Gasperini feels Atalanta learned that ‘incidents and moments’ are decisive in the Champions League after their exit to Club Brugge. ‘We had more scoring opportunities, but they took theirs better.’

They lost the first leg of this play-off 2-1 with a ridiculous stoppage-time penalty decision, then this evening were caught three times on the counter-attack, repeatedly hit the woodwork and saw Simon Mignolet parry the Ademola Lookman penalty after the Nigeria international had given them some hope off the bench.

“They were two rather strange games, as the Champions League is a tournament decided by incidents and moments,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia after the 3-1 home defeat, 5-2 on aggregate.

“We conceded a goal straight away, then another moments after hitting the woodwork, so they made the most out of every situation. It was incredible to go into the break 3-0 down after those performances.

“The team always played with dignity, created many scoring opportunities, missed a penalty, had a goal-line clearance. Any of those moments could’ve changed the game.”

Lookman made his comeback from several weeks out injured and made an immediate difference coming off the bench, so does Gasperini regret not starting the Ballon d’Or candidate?

“I have more news than you do on his condition,” replied the coach. “Lookman’s first game with the team was yesterday and until a couple of days ago he struggled to kick the ball. It’s too easy to criticise when you don’t know the situation.”

Gasperini defends his Atalanta decisions

Atalanta have had a definite downturn in results and performances in 2025, also going out of the Coppa Italia and falling behind in Serie A, while Club Brugge in both legs looked physically much sharper. Is the long season taking it out of the squad?

“I would say we held out to the end, despite the fact missing the penalty rather dampened our enthusiasm,” insisted Gasperini.

“The problem is that Club Brugge have some players with remarkable pace. Undoubtedly, we suffered in those one-on-one situations and there weren’t that many of them, but they made the most of every single one. The third goal was a fantastic finish, they made the most of every chance and we could’ve done better with our finishing.

“This is a competition where moments can make a huge difference and over the two legs, we had many more scoring opportunities, but they took theirs better. We can only give credit to this young, fresh and vivacious team, the elimination is fair and we are left with regrets.”

This entire European campaign has felt somewhat cursed for Gasperini’s men, from the number of wasted opportunities in the 0-0 draw with Celtic to missing out on direct access to the Round of 16 by just one point.

“We had an extraordinary period of form that coincided with Retegui scoring many goals, with De Ketelaere and Lookman in great shape too. That ran for a few months, but in the last six weeks we had Lookman’s injury, then Retegui and De Ketelaere weren’t as consistent as before, which is to be expected over the course of a campaign,” explained Gasperini.

“Maldini is out and we don’t have any other strikers to bring in, so we must adapt with Brescianini and Samardzic having different characteristics. If you score a few more goals, the performance is made to look better, but we have struggled recently to finish those chances.

“Now that we are out of the Champions League, I think the squad will have time to recover, get back on track and have a strong end to the season.”