Gian Piero Gasperini expects ‘a reaction’ from Crotone but says Atalanta are ‘confident’ ahead of an important week in Serie A.
La Dea have won three on the bounce in the League and currently sit fourth ahead of Week 25, preparing to face Crotone on Wednesday, before a trip to Inter on Sunday.
“It’s like all the games in our League, it will be a difficult match,” Gasperini said. “Tomorrow, we must take the right precautions, but we are in a good moment.
Gian Piero Gasperini expects ‘a reaction’ from Crotone but says Atalanta are ‘confident’ ahead of an important week in Serie A.
La Dea have won three on the bounce in the League and currently sit fourth ahead of Week 25, preparing to face Crotone on Wednesday, before a trip to Inter on Sunday.
“It’s like all the games in our League, it will be a difficult match,” Gasperini said. “Tomorrow, we must take the right precautions, but we are in a good moment.
“We have the utmost confidence, we want to continue this moment.”
Crotone arrive after having parted ways with coach Giovanni Stroppa and replaced him with Serse Cosmi.
“We respect the moment of Crotone, they have been unfortunate,” he said. “They performed well but didn’t collect much.
“But we want to continue what we are doing. The change of coach brings more attention and a reaction.
“It’s a team, which, gave a feeling of being in good condition. They often lost in the final minutes, for example.”
The coach said he has seen Josip Ilicic, who played the last 30 minutes against Sampdoria, in a good way in recent weeks.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Sunday [against Inter] will be an important game for this last part of the season.
“But you talk too much about the individuals. The team deserves a little more attention, I would also shift the focus to other players despite the importance of the individuals.”
Gasperini said he will assess Duvan Zapata today and stressed his injury is not as serious as it was last year.
“We will try today, we’ll see,” he said. “It’s a milder injury than last year, there are no such worries.
“He’s much better. He will be back on the pitch today, he could have done it yesterday.
“After six days, he should be available, last year he already started from a longer recovery period.”
Gasperini plans to give his players a day off after the match, as the fixture list is getting less busy.
“We’ll take a day off already on Thursday,” Gasp continued. “It’s not a lot to have one more day, but it’s different than before.
“It helps you to overcome minor injuries. They aren’t serious, but with one more day you recover better. This can help us, we hope,” he laughed.
It’s a big week for the Orobici, who play the bottom of the table on Wednesday and then the League leaders on Sunday.
“The obvious thing is that halfway, we are here, we manage to be competitive,” he said.
“We are not thinking about winning the Scudetto, but we are thinking about Roma, Napoli, Lazio, the teams who are close to us."