Giampaolo: “Let’s turn over a new leaf”

Marco Giampaolo was clear about the strategy to adopt off the back of a heavy loss against Atalanta for his side on Monday night. “We have to reset and go again. Atalanta were the better team and they showed why regardless of the mistakes that we made. They were worthy winners. We head home without pointing the blame at anyone. We’ll just turn over a new leaf and go again.

“For a team like ours which is fighting for survival, we can’t waste time dwelling on a defeat like this. We have to think about the next game. There’s not much else to discuss.”

The boss discussed the key mistake of the evening to allow the hosts to score as early as the sixth minute. “We gifted them the opening goal and that goal was the basis for the rest of Atalanta’s performance. We were better in the second half with our substitutes, but it was an uphill struggle throughout.

“As for taking off [Stefano] Sensi and [Fabio] Quagliarella, there was a risk of losing them to injury, so I decided to bring them off. Now we can go again and think about our next match. We have to dust ourselves down after this defeat.

“It’s a long and hard season and it’s a real dogfight down at the bottom. Tonight’s game in Bergamo has been put to bed.”