Gasperini hits back at Roma complaint over Atalanta schedule

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini hit back at Roma’s complaints about the scheduling of their fixtures, suggesting the Evan Ndicka health scare was insufficient reason to suspend a game.

The two teams are now neck and neck on 60 points in joint fifth place, battling for a spot in the Champions League, and will come face to face this Sunday.

Roma had hoped to postpone it until Monday, as they have the Europa League semi-final second leg away to Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday evening.

However, that would’ve meant moving the Coppa Italia Final, which Atalanta have against Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on May 15.

The Giallorossi are also fuming that Atalanta’s game in hand against Fiorentina might not be played until June, after the Serie A season has ended.

“I want to underline something. It is not our fault if we don’t know the date of the Fiorentina match yet,” said Gasperini in his press conference after a 2-1 win away to Salernitana.

“This situation has penalised us too, we would’ve played earlier, but it was not possible because for months we’ve been playing three times a week.

“Unfortunately, in that situation, something truly dramatic happened and we need people to recognise it was not just a Code Yellow scenario.”

Gasperini compares Barone to Ndicka

The game with Fiorentina was called off on March 17 an hour before it was due to begin after Viola director Joe Barone collapsed in the team hotel.

He was rushed to hospital and died two days later.

The ‘Code Yellow’ mention from Gasperini was a reference to when Roma defender Ndicka went to ground with breathing difficulties and chest pains during the match against Udinese and was taken to hospital under that banner.

Code Yellow means no danger to life, whereas Barone was admitted as Code Red – imminent danger to life.

Roma decided not to resume the game and had to reschedule the final 17 minutes for another date.

“We did not receive any advantage from the rescheduling of these fixtures, let that be clear. In fact, seeing the other teams ahead of us in the table can be psychologically damaging,” continued Gasperini.

“They also rescheduled our game with Inter so it was between the clashes with Milan and Bologna, which proved to be negative for us. This is a problem caused by the density of the fixture list, it is not our choice.”

Atalanta are the only team in Italy still in three different tournaments, while Fiorentina are in the Conference League semi-final, so finding a date to play each other is proving practically impossible.