De Roon: ‘Atalanta immature and got scared’ after Athletic equaliser

Atalanta captain Marten de Roon admits they ‘collapsed and lost our focus completely’ in the incredible 3-2 defeat to Athletic Club. ‘We showed immaturity, we got scared.’

La Dea were dominating in Bergamo and leading 1-0 through Gianluca Scamacca’s header, so at half-time they were in third place in the big Champions League table, an extraordinary result for this club.

However, after conceding the equaliser against the run of play, they crumbled and fell 3-1 down, the late Nikola Krstovic tap-in not enough to rescue the situation.

“We collapsed after conceding the equaliser, it was like a blackout,” De Roon told Sky Sport Italia.

“Rather than an equaliser, it felt like we were losing 2-0, so we just got chaotic, and that cannot happen. I am very sad, as seeing the first half and even the second before conceding the equaliser, we were in control. It leaves a very bitter taste in our mouths.”

It comes just days after Atalanta were also held to a 1-1 Serie A draw by relegation-threatened Pisa, and is hardly the first time they’ve fumbled in dominant situations.

“We’re dropping too many points in these situations, this was a big opportunity to finish in the top eight and we wasted it. It’s difficult to say what the problem is,” continued De Roon.

“We showed immaturity this evening. You can concede a goal, but you don’t have to slip into crisis mode, we could’ve stayed calm. Our pressing was totally disorganised, we saw that the team just stopped playing.

“We saw yesterday with what happened to Napoli that in the Champions League, they can score at any moment, but we had time and we just lost our focus completely.”

Atalanta are struggling to convert many of their chances this season and it means they often leave results open.

“We had a similar situation against Torino, when we dominated the first half and only scored one goal,” agreed the captain.

“We need to kill the games off when we have that control. I think the problem is that we lack maturity, when you are under pressure, you have to hold on. Instead, we got scared, we vanished from the pitch, and this is very bad.”