Atalanta-Milan, Pioli seeks confirmation: in Gasp’s lair first strong emotions

Yesterday Stefano Pioli: “It’s a direct confrontation”. Yesterday Gian Piero Gasperini: “It’s not a direct confrontation”. They are both right. It is not a direct clash if we talk about ambitions, because the champions Milan are aiming for the Scudetto, while Atalanta, who finished 8th with 27 points behind the Rossoneri, are aiming for other targets. But it is because the Goddess, fresh from three Champions League appearances and three consecutive third places in Serie A, has retained the status of great. We are with Pioli: Atalanta-Milan tonight at the Gewiss Stadium is a direct match, the first of this championship that lights up the rockets for take-off. Until next time there will be Juve-Roma, in the fifth the Milanese derby and away… It is true that Inter and Fiorentina, in their debut, won to the last breath, there could have been two draws. But, in the end, there were no draws and the favorites all won, with a suspicion in tow: if, due to the growing gap in values, it will be more difficult for the small ones to snatch points from the big ones, the direct clashes will become even more important. for the Scudetto. Proving it is easy. In the last three championships, whoever has scored the most points in the intersections with the top six, has won the Scudetto. Milan, in the last tournament, collected 3 more than Inter; in the previous one 3 less and Conte won. Roma in the league last was the worst of the top six: only 5 points collected in 10 top crossings, none against Inter, Milan and Juve. This is where Mourinho’s ambitious army will have to grow: more personality, better pressure management. Atalanta will have to grow above all at the Gewiss Stadium: no home win against the top six last year; between home and away 11 points with the big teams, worse than the first four, better than the Roman ones. In 2019-20, Atalanta was second only to champion Juventus in the standings detached from the top six: 19 points to 16.

FLIGHT TESTS

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Head-to-head clashes do not only make up the standings, they make up the team, because they give awareness of their strength and scare the competition. The splendid Atalanta of Gasp blossomed all of a sudden in the autumn of 2016 thanks to three home victories against more qualified opponents: Napoli. Inter, Rome. This is what the technician from Grugliasco intends to do today: beat a big one in front of his own people to start a new cycle, after having downloaded historical monuments (Ilicic, Freuler) and embarked on young people of perspective (Okoli, Soppy). Even Milan, which Pioli has collected in the rubble, has gained self-esteem and respect thanks to the results, looking the strongest in the eye, without lowering them. He won the last three crosses with Atalanta and they were three significant moments: at the last of the 2020-21 championship he earned the return to the Champions League by beating the Goddess with a brace from a penalty from Kessie; in the last tournament, two key victories, in October and May, to escape and cross the finish line of the championship. Pioli also wants to repeat himself: transforming the three of a kind into poker to launch the championship that must lead the Devil to the second star.

TURN GASP

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This is why the direct clash (it is) in Bergamo, the first in the championship, is already significant, even if we are only at dawn. The beautiful goal by Theo Hernandez last May 15, cover of the Scudetto, was an indication of the market for Gasp. The Frenchman was good at cutting the whole field, but the Goddess, always celebrated for his physicality, lacked the strength to stop him. Hence the decision to dismiss heroes from excessive mileage (Freuler) and foreclose young people who bring leg, strength and intensity, such as Soppy, Ederson and Lookman. Not all are available yet, others will arrive (a left winger, a first striker), but, waiting to field the real Atalanta, against a Milan that shares the same principles (pressing, mass attack), Gasp already wants to see a signal of ethical and competitive discontinuity, compared to the sad end of last season; he wants to find the goals of his attackers and, above all, a prestigious victory that Bergamo has been missing for 490 days: Atalanta-Juve 1-0 (18 April 2021), Malinovskyj’s goal, excellent purged. The Goddess needs a burst of pride to rekindle the excitement around her and get back in line with her exciting recent past.

CONFIRM PEGS

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The start of the season showed Pioli that his youngsters kept hunger and cravings intact. A confirmation against the dentist Gasp, who still requires running, fatigue and suffering, would have a higher value, at the beginning of the run-up to the second star. Key word: pressing. The one who avoids it and the one who imposes it wins. In the last passage at the Gewiss Stadium, Theo twice escaped the ball and chain from the networks of the Orobic pressers, crossed the field and scored first Calabria, then Leao. Tonali, who is back today, robbed Freuler between the Bergamo tents and went straight or into the door. Aggression, offensive courage: Milan won with Atalanta’s weapons. Pioli wants to see the same anger again. Gasp will have studied how to trap Theo, who also raged at San Siro, and how to overturn the script. Pioli will have invented another. Neither will wait. We’ll have fun.