Palladino: ‘Atalanta defeat inexplicable, first half was perfect’

Raffaele Palladino finds it ‘difficult to explain’ how Atalanta went from dominating Athletic Club to losing 3-2 in the Champions League. ‘The first half was perfect, we had a blackout.’

It was a bizarre night in Bergamo, because La Dea had won four of their last five Champions League games, and were leading 1-0 at half-time tonight with a dominant performance and Gianluca Scamacca header.

At this stage, they were third in the big table, but they crumbled in the second half, conceding three goals with defensive errors for Gorka Guruzeta, Nico Serrano and Robert Navarro.

Nikola Krstovic pulled one back late on, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a painful defeat that shows the lack of maturity in this team.

“It is difficult to explain this performance, as the first half was perfect, we did everything we had prepared against a team we knew would come here to defend and counter, we created chances, took the lead, could’ve had a second,” Palladino told Sky Sport Italia.

“Then at half-time we said in the dressing room that we had to maintain the same spirit, but inexplicably this equaliser was like a killer blow. We had a blackout and conceded a series of goals that we never concede. We weren’t expecting that, the intention was to score a second, we have to show more maturity in the Champions League, because you get punished for every error.

“This is football, an equaliser can happen, but you need to stay in the game and not do this. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.”

The goals were from very cheap errors and the failure to read long balls, which just seemed to hit the team harder psychologically.

“I don’t believe there was arrogance, as these players work every day to improve, but we were in control of the match and that equaliser came when there were five players in the box defending. It’s absurd to concede a goal like that, we’d never let those in before, but you pay a heavy price in the Champions League.

“There are many regrets, we must analyse the situation and all do something more to understand it.”

While Atalanta had been in the top eight going into this round, and then third at half-time, they now go into the final match against Union Saint-Gilloise in 13th place.

That is still one more point than both Inter and Juventus, so they remain the top-ranking Italian side in the Champions League so far this season.

“This mustn’t weigh on us, because our objective is to qualify for the play-offs. Obviously, we were up there and could dream of the top eight, but I have to focus on the performance,” insisted Palladino.

“What we showed today is that we need to learn and grow, when things don’t go the way we expected, we’ve got to hang in there during a difficult moment and react differently.

“Instead, we reacted with passivity and that is not right. I am trying in every way to understand why these blackouts keep happening, I don’t sleep at night because of it.

“I try to analyse with the lads, but there are moments in every game when you have to suffer, and we’ve got to learn to understand those moments. If we manage that, we can make that step up in quality that we’re lacking right now.”