Atalanta 2-1 Chelsea – De Ketelaere fired up: ‘Perhaps Garnacho knows about us now’

Charles De Ketelaere was the hero for Atalanta this evening as he picked up an assist and scored the winner in La Dea’s 2-1 win against Premier League side Chelsea.

Speaking after the game, the Belgian thanked the fans and praised his side’s attitude in the win, which propelled Raffaele Palladino’s side into third place in the Champions League table.

“It is wonderful, the fans are so fired up too, it’s a great evening. We have to go forward with this confidence, it’s not possible we can play like we did on Saturday and then win tonight. That means we have to be strong mentally, then we can win every game,” De Ketelaere told Sky Sport Italia.

“We were coming off three victories before that bad defeat, but we know that we have a lot of quality. In football you have to prove it every single time and we showed that today, it really helps our confidence.

“Even against a direct opponent, as Chelsea were also on 10 points, we showed great quality and now want to win the next two games as well.”

Alejandro Garnacho was dismissive of Atalanta in yesterday’s press conference, but he came off the bench today and didn’t make much of an impact.

“Garnacho said yesterday he didn’t know much about Atalanta, perhaps he knows about us now! He should’ve known from Dublin winning the Europa League.

“If we want to play these games again next season, then we have to climb back up the Serie A table.”

With just two games left of the league phase, Atalanta now face a month away from continental action, returning to face Athletic Club and Union Saint-Gilloise at the end of January.

With thirteen points obtained so far, the consensus is that La Dea would require just two more points to more or less guarantee themselves a place in the top eight – therefore granting them a bye for the play-off round.