Down to Ten Men

Atalanta manager GianPieroGasperini says the focus is on securing a place in the Champions League next season and not the Coppa Italia final clash with Juventus next week. He was speaking in his pre-match presser ahead of the Italian Serie A clash at Genoa on Saturday. According to him, his players are not distracted by the Coppa Italia final with the Old Lady and that the immediate focus is on the league.

Gasperini has been able to build Atalanta into one of the best teams in Italian football. They have represented Italian football in the Champions League in the last two seasons and a third successive campaign in Europe's premier club competition is on the horizon.

AS Roma manager Pablo Fonseca disclosed that his team lacked mental strength to cope with adversaries as they crumbled to a 6-2 defeat against Premier League giants Manchester United when the two teams met in the first of two Europa League meetings in one week.

Fonseca spoke to Sky Sports Italia after the heavy defeat suffered by his Italian football team. According to him, his Italian football team had the right tactical approach for the game played at Old Trafford on Thursday night and that the required mental strength was lacking and that ultimately led to the collapsed in the second half.

Lazio midfielder Luis Alberto has returned to training to hand his Italian football capital club a big boost ahead of the game against Hellas Verona on Sunday. Alberto has returned to full training after a recent time out as a result of injury and he's in line to return to the Lazio starting XI for the game against home team Verona on Sunday afternoon.

The news of his return to full training was revealed by a report from the stables of popular Italian football news portal Tuttomercatoweb. It was also revealed that other Lazio players like Patric, DaniloCataldi and Mateo Musacchio have also returned to training.

Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne (KDB) is delighted that RomeluLukaku could team up with his teammates in the Belgium national team. KDB spoke about Lukaku in glowing terms during the pre-match presser ahead of the start of the Red Devils of Belgium’s qualifiers. The Manchester City player is delighted that Lukaku is available for the three World Cup 2022 qualifying matches in the current international break starting with the home game with Wales. Belgium are the top team in Group E of the Qatar 2022 qualifiers in the European section. After the Wales game, Lukaku, KDB and Belgium will travel to take on Czech Republic on Saturday before the third and final game of the qualifiers in this international break is played at home to Belarus on Tuesday night.

Italian football received a big boost in the summer of 2018 when Serie A holders Juventus made a big transfer coup by signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. The Old Lady paid an initial fee of €100m to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and the major reason behind his signing was clear. Juventus had been the dominant force in Italian football for several years and they needed to transfer that domestic form into European football. The Old Lady wanted to dominate European football especially the Champions League just like what was obtainable with Italian football. Juventus had been the number one team in Italian football for the better part of the last one decade but they have not tasted success in Europe since winning the Champions League at the end of the 1995/96. Ronaldo is referred to as Mr. Champions League due to his prowess and his signing was the right thing for Juventus to do but it has not worked out so far.

Italian football giants AS Roma are in a fantastic position to qualify for the round of 16 in the Europa League this season after a good result in their last 32 first leg clash with Sporting Braga. The Italian football giants were able to secure a 2-0 away win over Sporting Braga of Portugal last week Thursday to take a big step towards the last 16 of the competition. AS Roma players know that the job is far from over and that they need to keep Sporting Braga at bay in the second leg scheduled for the StadioOlimpico on Thursday night. Edin Dzeko and Borja Mayoral were the goalscorers for Italian football giants AS Roma in the first leg. AS Roma had several injury problems but they were able to overcome them to secure a big result over Braga.