Know Your Champions League Enemy: Atalanta B.C.

Our tour through our Group D opponents comes to a conclusion
with Italian side Atalanta.

We should all take a moment to be thankful for this year’s
Champions League group. Yes, it’s more than a
slight disappointment to many that they won’t be able to
travel—especially to Amsterdam for reasons—but it’s a
great group nonetheless.

One of the problems with the Champions League is the entrenched
group of European Elite teams, which tend to create the same match
ups every single year. Such as Manchester
City vs. Lyon.

That is not a problem with this year’s Group D. We have FC
Midtjylland, a Champions League debutant. We have Ajax, who despite
their status as a European elite, haven’t faced off against Liverpool since 1966. And we have Atalanta, who
just made their Champions League debut last year, and who Liverpool
have never faced.

But just because Atalanta doesn’t have history against
Liverpool, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have history. Quite the
contrary!

History

Atalanta was founded in 1907 by a group of Swiss students based
in Bergamo, in the Lombardy province of Italy. They named the club
after the Greek hero of the same name, described by Stephen Fry in
his fantastic book Heroes:

“Her supreme swiftness and unmatched ability as a huntress
made Atalanta a natural devotee of the goddess of Chastity and the
Chase, Artemis, to whom she committed herself, heart and
soul.”-p. 273

Pretty badass, actually. Can we agree more sports teams need to
follow this route when thinking up a name? I hear there’s a
football team in Washington DC that’s having an issue at the
moment. Just a suggestion.

But I digress. Because of their name, they are also known as
La Dia (“The Goddess”)—Atalanta is a goddess in some
versions of the myth—and I Nerazzurri (“The Black and
Blues”).

The Italian Football Federation was not too impressed with
Atalanta, and wouldn’t even recognize the club until 1914. The club
then merged with a local rival in 1920, and moved to its current
ground, Gewiss Stadium, in 1928. The club was finally admitted into
the Italian football league in 1929, and earned their first
promotion to Serie A in 1937. Although the club mostly remained a
top-flight club throughout its history, they have been relegated
frequently along the way, most recently in 2010. They even spent a
solitary season, 1981, in Serie C.

Their modern history, including what brings them to the
Champions League, started in 2016/17 when manager Gian Piero
Gasperini took over the reins at Atalanta. He struggled, initially,
but quickly righted the ship. By the end of the season, Atalanta
had risen to 4th in the table, their best-ever league position.
Gasperini took Atalanta to a respectable 7th placed finish the
following season, and yet another best-ever finish—3rd—in 2018/19,
including a 13-match unbeaten run in the league. And last year they
finished 3rd again; this season also included an impressive run—a
9-match winning streak—the longest in the club’s history.

European History and
Honors

Atalanta have just one major honor to their name: the 1962/63
Coppa Italia. They’ve finished runners-up in the domestic cup
competition three more times, including in 2018/19, but that one
victory remains their sole piece of silverware.

Although Atalanta are only in their second ever Champions League
campaign, they do have some European history to boast about. In
1987/88, they became one of only two non-first division teams (an
honor shared with Cardiff City) to reach the semifinals of a
European competition, the European Cup Winners’ Cup. They also
reached the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) quarterfinals in 1990/91,
losing out to domestic rival Inter
Milan.

They didn’t qualify for Europe again until 2017, when they
qualified for the Europa League group stages. Atalanta made it out
of the group, but fell to Dortmund in the Round of 32, 4-3 on
aggregate. Their 7th placed finish in 2018 once again qualified
them for Europe, but they failed to advance to the Group Stage
after failing to get past FC Copenhagen in the playoff. Perhaps
they had revenge on their mind when they traveled to Denmark and
dished out a 4-0 thrashing to Midtjylland?

Finally, Atalanta made their Champions League debut last year.
And they made it count, reaching the quarterfinals along the way.
Amazingly, they became just the second team to qualify from a group
after losing its first three matches. They saw off Valencia 8-4 on
aggregate, before losing to eventual finalists PSG, 2-1.

Atalanta have been an exciting team to watch over the past few
years. And they’ve shown the ability to ride a wave of momentum
under manager Gasperini. Liverpool are likely to have their hands
(or feet) full in Italy this Wednesday. But it’s the Champions
League. Tough competition and excellent football is exactly what we
want to see.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has
condemned the recent attack on some media houses.

Mohammed who spoke in Lagos on Saturday when he paid a visit to
the media organisations that were attacked in the aftermath of the
EndSARS protest and the Lekki shooting, said any attack on media
houses was an affront on democracy in the country.

“Whoever attacks free press is also attacking democracy because
there can no democracy without a robust and vibrant free press,” he
said.

“That is why this attack must be condemned without any
reservation. Closely those who came here came with a purpose. It
was to shut down the voice of reasoning.

He also reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to
regulating the social media, stressing that the move was to protect
the rights of other Nigerians.

The minister noted that he wasn’t going back on his earlier
assertion that the government would control the media.

“A few people will say look at the minister who just few days
ago was speaking about regulating the social media. What kind of
double speech? He is coming here again to talk about protecting the
media.

“Of course, I don’t see any contradictions in those positions.
Yes, we would protect the free press; we would protect democracy
and the rights of other Nigerians to express themselves. At the
same time, we must protect the rights of others,” he added.

The minister’s remarks come 10 days after the headquarters of
Television Continental (TVC) among other media houses were attacked
by a mob in Lagos.