Gian Piero Gasperini was delighted that his Atalanta side managed to achieve the unthinkable and progress to the knockout rounds of the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
La Dea continue to astonish, and a 3-0 win away to Shakhtar Donetsk saw them complete an incredible comeback to qualify despite losing their first three games.
“I’m very happy for the guys,” he told his post-match press conference.
“This team have grown. There’s more about us than there was before.”
Duvan Zapata has been missing for most of the group stage and both Josip Ilicic and Rafael Toloi were missing in Ukraine.
“The group won,” Gasperini added.
“We practically lacked our attack. But there’s an awareness [in this team], a quality of play regardless.
“Individual contributions are very important. We had [Mario] Pasalic, [Ruslan] Malinovskyi and [Luis] Muriel, who have also played in the league, so we’re solid in this regard.”
