Palladino: ‘Atalanta enjoyed their football, I am very proud’

Raffaele Palladino is ‘proud’ of Atalanta’s run of three consecutive victories after beating Torino 2-0. ‘My team had the right mentality and enjoyed their football.’

Charles De Ketelaere also ended his 118-day Serie A goal drought to open the scoring with a glancing header on Lorenzo Bernasconi’s corner, but it remained open until the last kick of the game with Mario Pasalic’s counter-attack.

There were concerns for Berat Djimsiti, who went off after a knock before half-time and was taken to hospital for X-Rays, which excluded microfractures.

“I am very satisfied, as I told the team I wanted a performance with character, and I saw them set foot on the field with the right mentality. They wanted to win and also enjoyed their football, so that makes me a proud coach,” Palladino told Sky Sport Italia.

“The only regret is that we didn’t score the second goal earlier, as we left the game open, and anything can happen in football. Torino had chances, but my team really wanted this win. I’m happy for Mario too, he scored a great goal.”

It was an emotional celebration for Pasalic, who lost his father before Christmas, and shed a tear as he was hugged by all his teammates at the final whistle.

La Dea have achieved something they hadn’t experienced since the Gian Piero Gasperini era, as this was their third consecutive Serie A victory.

They were some of the toughest fixtures, beating Roma, Bologna and now Torino, and they have conceded just one goal in the last five rounds.

“The most difficult games are the next ones, as Pisa are strong on home turf, Parma have a lot of quality. We must face every opponent with the same mentality, as it is the only way we can keep climbing the table,” noted Palladino.

“These lads have given so much in the last two months and everyone who plays gives their all. I see them enjoying themselves, working as a team and the forwards are the first to help the defence, so I can only be happy with that.”

This result means Atalanta continue to climb the standings after their dismal start under previous coach Ivan Juric.

They are now ahead of Bologna in seventh place, even considering the Rossoblu have a game in hand, as the gap is four points.

“Since I arrived, I brought a different methodology of training, but I asked the team to work with a lot of intensity, as there isn’t much time between games,” explained Palladino.

“We needed that to get the fitness levels up, I still feel we can be more clinical in front of goal, as in every game we don’t convert enough chances and we saw today how dangerous that can be.

“We are creating the scoring opportunities, so we should be more worried if we didn’t create them. We’re also still without important players like Lookman, Kossounou and Bellanova, but we’ve got to get goals from more areas of the team and not just the forwards. We can certainly improve in that sense.”