Atalanta’s Marten de Roon admits that La Dea’s last-minute loss to Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night hurt the players and that Champions League games are decided by the finest of margins.
Having suffered at Dinamo Zagreb in their opener, Atalanta needed points at the Stadio San Siro and despite having had chances and impressing throughout, they fell to a 95th-minute strike.
“It’s very sour and frustrating to lose a match in the final seconds,” De Roon told Elf Voetbal, “particularly because we were in control at the end of the game.
“We should have scored earlier, but unfortunately they got the winning goal.
“That blow hurt us and there’s huge disappointment with this defeat. It’s clear that the Champions League is about the fine details.”
The defeat, or rather the extent of it, in Croatia came as a shock for the Italians, but they were very much in the contest in Milan and fell so narrowly short.
“We were simply overwhelmed against Zagreb, but today [Tuesday] we played well,” De Roon continued.
“We were good, we created opportunities but unfortunately we still lost because we gave away two chances.
“Naturally, in the Champions League we play against the champions of other countries and that means that the level is higher and it’s different from playing in Italy. We will have to get used to that.”
Atalanta now face a double header with the group’s top seeds Manchester City, which they would have wanted to have come into with points on the board, but the Duthcman says they’ll have to throw caution to the wind against the Premier League champions.
“We’ll go into the games City with the idea that we have nothing to lose,” he explained.
“When I think of those games I am certainly looking forward to them, but I’m not at all concerned with them now because they’re still far away.”
