The lowdown on FC Barcelona v Atalanta BC
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On Wednesday at 9pm CET, FC Barcelona will be welcoming Italian side Atalanta to the Estadi Olimpic in the first ever meeting between the teams. Let's take a closer look at the visitors.
Where they're from
Bergamo is a city of just 120,00 or so in Lombardy, northern Italy, although it is effectively part of the broader Milan metropolitan area, lying in a beautiful setting among the foothills of the Alps. It's main sights include the Piazza Vecchia, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and the Venetian walls around the Old City.
The club
Founded in 1907, Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio played their first season in Serie A in 1937. They have gone to play more seasons in the Italian top flight (63) without ever actually winning it than any other club and also hold the record for the most relegations to Serie B, always to eventually return to the top level. Eternally one of the 'other'' clubs in the Italian football scene, their only taste of major silverware came in 1963 when they won the Coppa Italia.
The last few years have unquestionably been the most glamorous in the club's whole history. In 2010 they finished a record high of third in the league, and repeated the trick the two seasons after. That also meant that while European football had only ever been a very rare treat for Atalanta supporters in the past, they are now a regular feature of UEFA competitions, and this is their fourth presence in the biggest competition of all.
The biggest moment of all happened last season, when they won the Europa League, beating Bayer Leverkusen in the final, the only game that the Germans lost all season.
The club is also recognised for having one of the best youth systems in the world. A recent study ranked it sixth in the world based on the number of first division players produced by the club.
Barça connections
There are just two players who wore both the shirts of Barça and Atalanta, namely Franck Kessié and Demetrio Albertini.
Kessie, from the Ivory Coast played his first European football at the Italian club, while his solitary season in blaugrana was 2022/23, He is particularly remembered for scoring the winning goal in the Clásico that year. He's now at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia and recently came to see Barça beat Real Madrid 5-2 in the Spanish Super Cup in that country, making a surprise appearance on Barça One in the process!
El Presidente Kessié ve a alegrar-vos el dia 🫡
— Barça One (@BarcaOneFCB) January 13, 2025
El leprechaun culer ens va donar sort per aixecar el primer trofeu de l'any al Superclàssic d'ahir 🍀
Recupera els millors moments del partit d'ahir a https://t.co/hSf8h5TX3Y pic.twitter.com/JhP0ZlAfCa
While it all started for Kessie in Bargamo, for Albertini it was the other way round. It was in the twilight of his career when joined from Lazio in 2004, playing just 14 games before switching to Barça in the winter transfer window to play under Frank Rijkaard. He only featured in six games (318 minutes) and retired at the end of the season.
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Form guide
2024/25 has been one of the most glorious seasons in Atalanta history. In Serie A, they strung together an extraordinary run of 11 consecutive victories from October to December and were sitting right at the top of the table. Sadly, they followed that with a run of three draws and a defeat, allowing Napoli and Inter Milan to move ahead of them in the race, although they finally got back to winning ways in their last outing, a 2-1 victory at Como.
Champions League results
Atalanta 0–0 Arsenal
Shakhtar Donetsk 0–3 Atalanta
Atalanta 0–0 Celtic
VfB Stuttgart 0–2 Atalanta
Young Boys 1–6 Atalanta
Atalanta 2–3 Real Madrid
Atalanta 5–0 Sturm Graz
In the Champions League their only defeat to date was against Real Madrid, and aside from the three goals they conceded that day they have only conceded one goal in their other six games. They put six past Young Boys and five past Sturm Graz and are already assured of a place in the knockout stages and could even finish in the top eight if they can get a result on Wednesday against Barça.
The players
Juan Cuadrado (Colombia 116), Rui Patrício (Portugal 108), Mario Pašalić (Croatia 72), Berat Djimsiti (Albania 61), Sead Kolašinac (Bosnia 60), Marten de Roon (Netherlands 42), Ademola Lookman (Nigeria 27), Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast 25), Charles De Ketelaere (Belgium 20), Gianluca Scamacca (Italy 20), Nicolò Zaniolo (italy 19), Mateo Retegui (Italy 18), Lazar Samardžić (Serbia 17), Isak Hien (Sweden 17), Rafael Tolói (Italy 14)
The boss
Other than a period at Pescara, Gian Piero Gasperini spent his playing career outside of Serie A, and it is as a coach that he made his name, starting out with the Juventus youth system and eventually landing a job with Genoa, who he guided not only into Serie A but also into the Europa League. This was enough to impressed Inter Milan, his next post, although things didn't work out there and following time at Palermo and briefly back in Genoa he took the Atalanta job in 2016.
His initial duty was simply to save the club from relegation. But he hasn't just achieved that. In his eight years in charge he has turned the club not only into one of the strongest outfits in Italy, but in all of Europe, and playing football that has earned admirers the world over.
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