five things to know about Atalanta Bergamo, OM’s opponent in the semi-final

Quarter-finalist in the 2020 Champions League against PSG, the Lombard club, which faces OM on Thursday, has greatly transformed.

It is not the best known of Italian clubs but a regular participant in European competitions since the 2017-2018 season, which equals, with this Europa League semi-final against Olympique de Marseille, Thursday May 2, the best run of its history. It is also a club with several faces known to French supporters and whose style of play has evolved a lot since its last confrontation with a French club, in 2020.

A calm defense

Sometimes numbers lie. If Atalanta only has the sixth defense in Serie A with 37 goals conceded, it is one of the three that concede the fewest dangerous situations, barely 3.5 per match on average, according to an analysis by the Football Observatory (CIES) in March. Only Juventus and Inter are more hermetic. However, four days before the end of the championship, their points average (1.73) is down sharply compared to previous seasons.

In Europe, the Lombards are in seventh place in this same ranking, which indicates a change in style compared to the very attacking team of previous years. Liverpool paid the price in the previous round: ready for a comeback after the 3-0 slap they received in the first leg, the Reds only scored once in the return, from a penalty (1-0).

Seven survivors of the quarter-final against PSG in 2020

Of the team eliminated by PSG, in the quarter-final of the Champions League in 2020, in Lisbon (2-1 in a single match, in a formula disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic), seven players are still there : goalkeeper Francesco Rossi, defenders Beram Djimsiti, Rafael Toloi and José Luis Palomino, midfielders Hans Hateboer, Marten de Roon and Mario Pasalic. The Albanian Djimsiti is the most used of the season (45 matches played in all competitions), with the last two following him closely. In this cosmopolitan workforce, thirteen nationalities are represented.

Gasperini, a dogmatist who lasts

If his name has been mentioned several times to sit on another bench, including that of Olympique de Marseille last summer, Gian Piero Gasperini has been in office since 2016. In the five main European championships, only four coaches have more seniority than him: Franck Schmidt (Heidenheim), Diego Simeone (Atlético de Madrid), Christian Streich (Fribourg) and Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool). Over the same period, OM used ten technicians, including temporary workers.

The Italian technician, aged 66, has never abandoned his basic idea, the three-way defense, which has come back into favor for several seasons, until Ligue 1. His defensive dogma has not always been successful for him: that is certain of being fired from Inter Milan in 2011, after only five matches, for trying to impose this then less common tactical pattern.

A squad of equal value to AS Monaco

The Vélodrome stadium will welcome several familiar faces. First, that of Sead Kolasinac, Bosnian defender who spent a season and a half in the Marseille city until last summer. Three other players have passed through Ligue 1: Dutch defender Mitchel Bakker (PSG), Croatian midfielder Mario Pasalic (Monaco) and Malian striker El Bilal Touré (Reims).

Despite the high capital gains made by the American owner – notably with the sale of striker Rasmus Hojlund to Manchester United – the overall value of the Bergamo squad is estimated at 349 million euros by Transfermarkt. A cumulative sum comparable to that of AS Monaco, but much higher than the value of its evening opponent (231 million).

In a recent inventory of tomorrow’s champions, position by position, the Football Observatory placed Giorgio Scalvini, 20, at the top of the ranking of central defenders. He joined the Squadra Azzurra at 18 and could be selected for the Euro.

A former scout named… Pablo Longoria

The three years spent by the Marseille president, Pablo Longoria, in Bergamo, between 2010 and 2013, left few traces. Essentially, a few photos of the former scout, long brown curls at the nape of his neck and a baby face. The Spaniard, who talks more readily about his experiences at Sassuolo and especially at Juve, has just declared to La Gazzetta dello SportTuesday : “It’s great to play against my first Italian club”.

He continues to watch closely what is happening there. He not only thought of Gasperini to succeed Igor Tudor, but also of the Dutch piston Hans Hateboer at the same time as he negotiated the transfer of Jonathan Clauss in the summer of 2022. He ultimately only concluded an arrival, in January 2023: that of Ukrainian attacking midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi, who has since returned to Genoa. A failure.