On the way back last Thursday, they all (or almost) only talked about that. From fans to journalists, from players to staff members, those who traveled the approximately 500 kilometers that divide Marseille to Bergamo have not regretted anything about the spectacle. If, on the pitch, everything did not really go as planned, more for the performance than the result obtained (1-1), Atalanta and its microcosm will keep a memorable memory of their trip to the Orange Vélodrome. Impressed by the atmosphere of the evening, almost charmed by the Marseille enclosure, the Bergamasques were enthusiastic after the meeting.
“It’s a wonderful stadium, very beautiful. The noise, what he gives to his team… It gives them something more. We suffered but we played with personality and it wasn’t easy in this atmosphere“, reacted the technician of the “Dea” Gian Piero Gasperini at a press conference. Before adding a layer on Monday after his team’s victory against Salernitana: “They have an incredible, enviable field factor. I had rarely seen that in my life, even in the way he is built, so big, and with this strength, which greatly pushes his team.”
However, the 66-year-old coach has seen others. We could cite for example San Siro (Milan), the Olimpico (Rome), the Stadio Maradona (Napoli) in Italy, or the Westfalenstadion (Dortmund), the Johan Cruyff ArenA (Amsterdam) and on several occasions Anfield (Liverpool) in Europe. Even for the club’s followers, the atmosphere at the Vélodrome was something special.
“It was something stratosphericwrote for example about X Cosimo Bartoloni, one of our transalpine colleagues. A stadium that sings and even jumps in the central stand. A truly unique stadium in the world.” “I don’t know how many stadiums have an atmosphere close to that of the Vélodrome: to win here, in such an atmosphere, the feeling is that you really have to achieve an exploit. In comparison, Anfield seems a library“, said Giorgio Dusi, another colleague of La Gazzetta dello Sportpresent at the stadium last Thursday.
Former defender and captain of the Olympian club, Habib Beye still marvels: “We have already seen what happened at the Vélodrome in that match before. There is not a stadium in Europe that is capable of doing what was done for 95 minutes. I think it supports the team and that’s why everything is possible“, he analyzed on the Canal+ set.
The feeling is that OM has two teams
As for the transalpine press, the feeling was the same the next day. “Throughout the match, the stadium shook (…) The two corners responded to each other in an unrivaled game (…) La Dea had to face the Vélodrome effect, unique in Europe“, reported the Corriere della Sera. “Atalanta is stronger than OM, but Marseille was able to compensate for the difference (…) The Vélodrome is a container of broken down noise because each sector of the stadium supports it in its own way. Result, an incredible rumble that never stops“, enthused La Repubblica.
“OM had promised hell, and it was hell (…) The draw is precious”, summarized the Corriere dello Sport. And the Atalanta Bergamo players are well aware of that. The Bergamo locker room believes that the hardest part was done by leaving the Vélodrome unscathed. “If we survived this… We knew it would be difficult, and it was. Bringing back a draw in Bergamo despite the atmosphere, the tiles (Kolasinac, editor’s note) and the difficulties of the pitch is precious“, tells us a close friend of the group. Although the level of vigilance remains very high. And the hardest part remains to be done.
Gian Piero Gasperini during Marsiglia-Atalanta – Europa League 2023-24
Credit: Getty Images
In Bergamo, the feeling is that OM has two teams. One at home, transported and transcended by its supporters, especially in Europe, which put Gasperini and his men in difficulty, both in terms of impact, intensity and rhythm. Then another outside, confronted with its technical and structural limits, which its supporters cannot then fill. Since last Thursday, during the technician’s various interviews and press conferences, the question has often come up on the table, revealing the state of mind that reigns on the other side of the Alps: is OM stronger? at home (and therefore implied much less outside)?
“It’s true that the field factor plays a lot with themconfirmed Gasperini on Monday. But I expect a match where we will have to be attentive and not make the same mistakes as in the first leg. It’s normal for us to be confident before this deadline. It would be wonderful, historic for Bergamo, but we have to play well, be good and intelligent.” Scorer in the first leg, Gianluca Scamacca, the man in form for the “Dea” (7 goals in the last 9 matches), refused to want to be too optimistic after the first leg score.
“OM is less good away? It will be balanced on the return, we start at 0-0“, he liquidated at the microphone of Sky Italia last Thursday. Not really the opinion of La Gazzetta dello Sportwho wrote the next day: “The draw in the Vélodrome volcano is worth gold, especially in the conditions and the way in which it was obtained (…) Thursday, in Bergamo, there is a good chance of going to the final.”
Penultimate in the ranking outside L1
Last season, OM de Tudor proved infallible away from home but more shaky at home. This year, the wheel has turned. At the Vélodrome, Jean-Louis Gasset’s team conceded 33 points (9 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss), ranking 3rd in the home standings in Ligue 1 behind Lille and PSG. Away, it plummets to penultimate place: 11 points, 2 wins, 5 draws… and 8 defeats. “If only home matches counted, we would be second in Ligue 1. We had problems away“, recently regretted the present Pablo Longoria to La Gazzetta dello Sport. In the Europa League, no miracle: 3 defeats (Brighton, Villarreal and Benfica), 2 draws (Ajax and Shakhtar) and one victory (AEK Athens).
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Not really reassuring before facing a team which has only lost four times in its lair this season against Inter, Napoli and Bologna, then against Liverpool (0-1) in the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League, without the slightest consequence after the success of the first leg (3-0).
“The impression is really that Atalanta did the hardest part by leaving the Vélodrome unscathed“, confirms the editorial staff of the Italian radio station Radio Sportiva, which consults all of the transalpine sports press every morning and receives thousands of testimonials from fans every day. “It’s almost 60-40” in favor of the “Dea”, we are told when we ask for a prediction. It’s up to OM to thwart it.