The football team of modest Bergamo city (Italy) is creating an extraordinary story in European football. The beauty that Atalanta is creating in the Champions League not only inspires familiar in football.
It is also the poor clubs can completely create miracles before the big guys. Atalanta creates fairy tales with a style of football that is offensive to life.
European media call Atalanta the new Cinderella of European football. Their salary fund is only 36 million euros a season, about the same as a mid-level football team playing in the English First Division.
Bergamo city has a population of just over 120,000 thousand. Compared to Inter Milan, Juventus or Barcelona, Atalanta is like a team from the countryside and remote in top football.
However, this team is now creating the most interesting story in the Champions League this season. Normally, when a team has led an opponent to 4-1 in the first leg of the Champions League, they will actively play defense in the second leg.
The nature of a knockout Champions League match does not allow clubs in Europe to take risks. However, Atalanta is not such a club. At the end of the round of 16 Champions League teams, Atalanta is definitely the team that goes on with the most entertainment.
They defeated Valencia with a total score of 8-4 after two matches. In the second leg, Atalanta and Valencia rushed forward in a match with a score of 4-3 in favor of Serie A.
On the streets of Bergamo, Atalanta fans understand how modest their club position is on the European football map. Their potential is not even in the top 10 in Serie A.
Atalanta even have to borrow the San Siro because the home ground in Bergamo does not meet UEFA standards. Guardian comments Cinderella Atalanta may not be ready for the tough Champions League challenge.
However, Guardian and Baldini were later mistaken. At the end of the group stage, Atalanta became the second team in Champions League history to lose in the first round of the group stage.
With Atalanta, goals come to them like breath, from Serie A to the European arena. Atalanta’s success is made up of names not so famous. The chief architect of their success, Gasperini is a coach who spends most of his career leading the small and medium clubs in Italy. He tried Inter Milan but was fired after only 3 months.