Gian Piero Gasperini is excited to face Lazio again just days after their Coppa clash and wants Atalanta to ‘keep raising the bar’ of their ambitions.
It kicks off on Sunday at 14.00 GMT, click here for a match preview.
Curiously, these teams already played out a 3-1 thriller on Wednesday in the Coppa Italia quarter-final, Atalanta winning despite seeing a Duvan Zapata penalty saved and going down to 10 men.
Gian Piero Gasperini is excited to face Lazio again just days after their Coppa clash and wants Atalanta to ‘keep raising the bar’ of their ambitions.
It kicks off on Sunday at 14.00 GMT, click here for a match preview.
Curiously, these teams already played out a 3-1 thriller on Wednesday in the Coppa Italia quarter-final, Atalanta winning despite seeing a Duvan Zapata penalty saved and going down to 10 men.
“On a tactical level, we know each other more now and can try to limit the opponent’s strengths,” said Gasp in his press conference.
“Going into this game having beaten Lazio only a few days ago gives us the right boost. Just getting into the final four of the Coppa was already a huge achievement.”
La Dea will face Napoli in the two-legged Coppa Italia semi-final, while Inter and Juventus meet in the other clash.
“We’re happy to be going into two semi-finals in eight days, as we’re feeling enthusiastic and the results are backing us up.
“This is a different season to usual, there’s a real battle for every point and every position. Our objective is to remain in the top places for as long as we can, then later on we’ll see what’s up for grabs. I think two points could be the difference between the Champions League and going out of the Europa League spots.
“It’s odd, we’re only halfway through, yet we’ve already played so many games. In the next 10 days we’re challenging for the Coppa Italia Final and in under a month we’ve got Real Madrid in the Champions League. We’ll try to keep it all going.”
Papu Gomez has now left, but Gasp has other concerns, as both Robin Gosens and Hans Hateboer miss out through injury, along with defender Bosko Sutalo.
“We have Joakim Maehle and Matteo Ruggeri who can fill in for Hateboer and Gosens, but we also tried a few other options.
“Mario Pasalic is available again. We’ve got many alternatives for the trequartista role, as everyone who played there has done pretty well, with Aleksei Miranchuk and Ruslan Malinovskyi scoring goals. Then you’ve got Josip Ilicic, Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata… We’ve got plenty of resources.”
Atalanta have now set a new club record with 36 points in the first half of the season.
“In recent years, we’ve always done pretty well before the midway stage, but then we’ve had second halves of the season where we put together 40 points. We’re trying to raise the bar, and it’s not easy to keep improving.”