Atalanta start their Conference League campaign with attention turned to Pafos, an opponent who has proven to be a top-level club in the previous season. Maurizio Sarri, in an interview with the club's official channels, outlined the expectations for the match and analyzed the recent victory against Venezia, highlighting the strengths and difficulties encountered.
Sarri underlined that Pafos is a team "with a rather high technical level", made up of numerous Brazilians and Portuguese, and predicted a demanding European challenge. “We must not only focus on ourselves, but also on our opponents,” he said, recalling that the Champions League saw the club reach the playoffs for the round of 16. The coach then invited the team to maintain "hunger, enthusiasm and desire to play", but also to develop a spirit of sacrifice to face any moments of suffering.
Regarding the match against Venezia, Sarri praised the first 35 minutes of "very high level" and cited the technical efficiency indices calculated by the artificial intelligence, which were very positive. However, he acknowledged that the recovery was more difficult, with the team having to “suffer”. The coach observed that, although all of Venezia's matches ended in defeat, in each of them there was suffering on the part of the opponents, highlighting the need to recover quickly after such an intense match.
Sarri also spoke of the need to "reorganize ideas" before the European match, underlining the importance of evaluating the players' state of mind and level of physical recovery. “Playing matches so close together always poses great difficulties,” he said, and reiterated the importance of maintaining concentration despite media pressure.
Finally, the coach expressed his passion for football, stating that the matches are important because "you can feel them inside". Sarri closed the interview by recalling that his motivation is his passion for the game, which makes him "still have fun in this profession". With these words, Atalanta prepares for a European match which, according to Sarri, will require commitment, concentration and team spirit.