First things first, welcome to Atalanta Club Focus where this week we will most definitely be daring to dream as we look at the league table and some of the upcoming fixtures.
It’s a bit of a special week here in the Atalanta section of the site. You will be rewarded with it if you continue to read.
Let’s get things started by celebrating the fact that the mighty Orobici have now won fig consecutive games in Serie A. To celebrate this, I’m going to share five random points about Atalanta, this is mainly for those of you who haven’t been paying too much attention to the Nerazzurri this season, and are perhaps reading this to find out a little more about Serie A’s surprise team in recent weeks. Who knows… Maybe you’ll learn something you didn’t know.
- Atalanta go by a few nicknames, for example: La Dea, the Orobici, the Nerazzurri.
- They boast the third best home record in Serie A this season, with just Italy’s top two clubs – Roma and Juventus – picking up more points in front of their own fans than the Bergamo boys.
- Five of the key players behind La Dea’s success this season are; Andrea Consigli, Luca Cigarini, Giacomo Bonaventura, Maximiliano Moralez, and Germán Denis.
- The Nerazzurri are regarded as one of Italy’s main feeder clubs, due to the number of high profile players to graduate through the clubs youth system. Five examples are: Giampaolo Pazzini, Roberto Donadoni, Riccardo Montolivo, Angelo Domenghini and Gaetano Scirea.
- It was with Atalanta that current Italy coach Cesare Prandelli began his career as a coach with the club’s Primavera side.
Since my last piece two games have taken place, and six points have been gained at the expense of Inter and Livorno.
The win at the weekend meant that Atalanta’s spell on Inter continued, with the San Siro side not beating the Bergamo club since April 2010. I labelled the clash at the weekend as being the ‘Battle of the Nerazzurri’ so I guess you could say that Atalanta are the real Nerazzurri given their strange dominance over Inter in recent years.
At the time of writing, La Dea are only hours off the pitch after comfortably brushing Livorno aside and thanks to other results they have climbed into 7th place. This is something that has me, along with many other people, very excited. The reason behind my excitement is that normally in Serie A the top three get the Champions League and then the next two places would get Europa League places.
This year is a little different, and could prove to be a lot different. Because Napoli and Fiorentina will face off in the Coppa Italia final, the Europa League place from that will go to 6th place in the league as they will both already be in a European competition. No big deal, right? Wrong! Let me explain. If Juventus are to win the Europa League, which they have a very good chance of doing and are extremely motivated to do so given the final is in their own stadium, then an additional Europa League place will be awarded to Serie A – meaning 7th place in Serie A will get European football if Juventus win the competition.
Atalanta’s next two games are games that could see the Nerazzurri pick up another six points. First up is a trip to Bologna, followed by a home fixture against Sassuolo. A month or two ago the away game would have been an issue but given that Atalanta have beaten Lazio and Inter in their last two games on their travels, it’s safe to say they won’t fear anybody at the moment.
With this in mind, there is no reason to suggest why Atalanta can’t make it seven straight wins, which would be a truly remarkable achievement.
Now to what makes this weeks Club Focus special. Well, more special than usual! The brilliant editor of this brilliant website – Dov Schiavone – managed to get a quick interview with Atalanta’s very own Giacomo, or, Jack the gentleman Bonaventura after the win in Milan. Dov managed to get Jack to speak in English and he was kind enough to put the interview on Soundcloud so I could use it for my Club Focus.
It’s only a minute long so have a listen if you have a spare moment. So if you’re interesting in listening to that well then just click below.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed a quite different club focus this week, it’s been enjoyable to mix it up.
Until next week, FORZA ATALANTA!
Follow Conor Clancy on Twitter: @concalcio
