Gasperini: Our Desire to Win Was Stronger Than Arsenal’s; They Seemed Unwilling to Secure a Victory

In the first round of the Champions League, with Retygi’s penalty saved, Atalanta ended up drawing 0-0 at home against Arsenal. After the match, Atalanta’s head coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, spoke to the media.

Gasperini told Sky Sports: “Of course there is regret, the penalty was a major scoring opportunity, and taking the lead 1-0 at that point would have been very important. However, we should be happy with the team’s performance; the level we demonstrated was sufficient to match our opponents. Unfortunately, this might have been Retygi’s best performance since joining us; he worked very hard tonight and deserved a goal.”

“I have great admiration for Arsenal; tonight they did not do much offensively, but they proved their solid defense, which is difficult to break through. We will become stronger from this game; we learned a lot.”

“Recently, we have had some good performances, but we did not show our true strength against Inter Milan. At least tonight we learned something about how to compete against opponents of this caliber.”

“Yes, my substitutions were aimed at winning, but this does not mean we neglected defense, as the defensive work of Lookman, De Ketelaere, and Retygi deserves praise. If our forwards work hard to help defend, then we can field more forwards, increasing our chances of scoring. I do believe Arsenal seemed content with a draw, while we did not get the unpredictable outcome we needed because they crowded together in their own penalty area. I do think we had more chances to win than they did.”