Atalanta boss Gasperini defends Supercoppa Italiana team selection

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini defended his team selection after his side’s 2-0 defeat to Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana.

Inter teed up a final against either Juventus or Milan after Denzel Dumfries scored twice in Riyadh on Thursday.

Serie A leaders Atalanta had a goal disallowed and created plenty of decent openings, registering chances worth 2.5 expected goals.

Yann Sommer made a fine double save late on, denying Ademola Lookman and Berat Djimsiti, as Inter held firm to register a fifth straight win without conceding in all competitions.

Lookman was one of the star names left out of Atalanta’s starting XI, alongside Charles De Ketelaere and Ederson, while in-form forward Mateo Retegui was suspended.

Gasperini, though, did not believe his squad rotation cost Atalanta.

“We have a lot of players,” he said.

“We have had a very demanding run in the league and it was the right time to test players who have not played much from the start.

5 – #Inter have won five games in a row without conceding a goal in all competitions for the fourth time in their history (since 1929/30), the first since the period between November and December 2007 (six in that case). Ironclad.#InterAtalanta pic.twitter.com/UIMjkIfs20

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) January 2, 2025

“I didn’t snub the competition, we tried to win and found a very strong team.

“We made a few too many mistakes.”

Wing-back Dumfries was Inter’s hero, becoming the fifth Dutch player to score in the Supercoppa Italiana, after Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Wesley Sneijder.

He matched Van Basten as the only one of those players to have netted twice in the competition.

“We know how difficult it is against Atalanta, they give us few spaces,” Dumfries’ team-mate Alessandro Bastoni told SportMediaset.

“In these situations, individual talent must shine and today Denzel did just this.”