Atalanta vs Athletic Club Preview: Europa League 2024

Athletic Club faces the last exit of the League Phase of the Champions League. With two days to go, the lions must win in Bergamo against Atalanta BC. The Zurigorri team retains its options to advance to the knockout round, but must win the two remaining matches. Nearly 1,500 athletic fans will travel to northern Italy to support Athletic in a momentous confrontation for continental survival. Athletic is in 28th place in the standings, two points and four places away from the zone that grants a ticket to the next round. Ernesto Valverde’s men come into the game after being defeated by RCD Mallorca and will be looking for a positive result that gives them chances of qualifying on the last date, when the lions host Sporting CP at La Catedral next week.

Pre-match statements

Review the press conference of Ernesto Valverde and Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta prior to the Atalanta BC-Athletic Club.

Statistics

This will be the first time that Athletic and Atalanta meet in official competition. However, the Zurigorri’s connections with Italy are numerous.

The lions have played a total of 23 official matches against eight different Italian teams, eleven of them in Italy, which makes the transalpine country the one Athletic has visited the most times to play European matches.

Our first trip to the other side of the Mediterranean took place in 1956, when we faced AC Milan in the final of the Latin Cup (predecessor of the Champions League, which was contested by the champions of Spain, Italy, France and Portugal). The lions’ most recent game in Italy was against AS Roma in last season’s Europa League. In fact, the visit to the Stadio Olimpico was double, first for a League Phase match and then for the first leg of the round of 16.

Two legends of Italian football have won the One Club Man award. AC Milan icon Paolo Maldini received the trophy in 2016 and Inter Milan reference Giussepe Bergomi won it in 2024.

Alex Berenguer is the only current member of the first team squad to have competed in Italian football. The winger spent three seasons at Torino FC before joining Athletic at the start of the 2020/21 campaign.

There are currently two former Athletic players playing in Serie A. Oier Zarraga signed for Udinese Calcio for the 2023/24 season and has played 52 games for the Friulian club. Unai Núñez joined Hellas Verona last summer and has played 16 games so far this season. Retired center forward Fernando Llorente played for three different Italian teams after leaving Athletic: Juventus, SSC Napoli and Udinese.

The Italian Lions – Italiako Lehoiak, based in Bergamo, are the official supporters club of Athletic based in Italy and have been representing the Zurigorri for more than 26 years.

Based in the city of Bergamo, Atalanta was founded in 1907 by students from the Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi, one of the most famous institutes in Italy. The club’s name comes from a heroine from Greek mythology.

In 1920, Atalanta merged with another local team, Bergamesca, to become Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio. It was also at that time when “La Dea” (The Goddess) changed her colors from black and white to black and blue.

Atalanta has a reputation for overachieving compared to teams from larger cities and is sometimes known as “the queen of the provinces.” This is because it holds the record for the most seasons played in Serie A (65) among teams that do not represent regional capitals. Furthermore, along with Genoa, Atalanta is the team that has achieved the most Serie B titles and promotions to Serie A.

The Bergamo team has two great titles under its belt. The 1962/62 Coppa Italia, which they won after beating Torino FC 3-1 in the final, and the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League, in which they ruined Bayer Leverkusen’s season-long unbeaten run with a 3-0 victory in the final. On their way to that final in Dublin, they also beat Sporting CP (round of 16), Liverpool FC (quarterfinals) and Olympique de Marseille (semifinals).

Atalanta have become regulars in continental competitions since qualifying for the 2017/18 Europa League, their first European campaign since the 1990/91 season. With the exception of the 2022/23 season, they have qualified for the Champions League or Europa League in every season of the last nine years.

The Italian club places great emphasis on developing youth, a tradition that dates back to the 1940s, when the team won its first national youth championship in 1949. However, increased investment in the early 1990s led to a huge increase in player production. Since 1991, Atalanta has won 19 different national youth trophies in various age categories.

According to the CIES Football Observatory, the Bergamo team’s youth academy is the second most prolific in Italian football (only surpassed by AS Roma), as it has trained a total of 49 players who have developed their careers in the five main European leagues over the last ten years.

Atalanta plays at the 23,500-capacity New Balance Arena (known as Stadio di Bergamo in European competitions), which has been its home stadium since 1928.

Data of interest

Atalanta BC coach: Raffaele Palladino. The former Juventus, Genoa and Parma player replaced Ivan Juric (who had in turn replaced the previous coach, Gian Piero Gasperin) in November 2025, after a difficult start to the season.
Palladino has stabilized the team, and La Dea has won all but three of its Serie A matches since his arrival, moving from thirteenth to seventh in the standings.

Among the 41-year-old’s previous notable spells as coach is the 2024/25 season at ACF Fiorentina, which he led to sixth place and qualification for the UEFA Conference League.

Before that, he had his chance at AC Monza, leading them to an unexpected 12th place in 2022/23 and repeating the feat in 2023/24.

Featured players

Atalanta’s squad reflects what the club has become famous for over the last decade, mixing established internationals with emerging local talent.

These are the 18 Atalanta players called up by their national teams for the international matches in November:

Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Italy)
Defenses: The Kolasinac (Albania), Isak Hien (South), Odilon Kossounu
Midfielders: Mario Pašalić (Croatia), Éderson (Brasil), Raoul Bellanova, Daniel Maldini y Davide Zappacosta (Italy), Charles De Ketelaere (Bélgica), Lazar Samardžić (Serbia), Nicola Zalewski (Poland), Yunus Musah (EE. UU.)
Fronts: Ademola looks (Nigeria), Gianluca Scamacca (Italy), Nikola Krstović (montenegro) y Kamaldeen Sulemana (Ghana)

Other notable players in the current squad include Dutch midfielder and club captain Marten de Roon, young Nigerian central defender Honest Ghanor, Italian midfielders Lorenzo Bernasconi and Marco Brescianini, as well as defender Giorgio Scalvini, who has already made eight appearances for the Italian national team.

State of form

The Italians’ only defeat in the Champions League this season was 4-0 against Paris Saint-Germain on the opening day. They also tied 0-0 with Slavia Prague. Ignoring those results, Atalanta has been in great form in the League Phase, beating Club Brugge (2-1 in Bergamo), Olympique Marseille (0-1 in France), Eintracht Frankfurt (0-3 in Germany) and Chelsea (2-1 at the Stadio di Bergamo).

They have won six and lost only one of their last seven Serie A games. The last league game was tied away from home against Pisa.

Curiosities

• They reached the semi-finals of the 1988 European Cup Winners’ Cup while playing in Serie B, an unprecedented feat for any other second division club in a continental competition.
• Like the Athletic Club Fundazioa, Atalanta has a project, called “Neonati Atalanti”, in which all newborns in the province of Bergamo receive a club t-shirt.
• Since 2010, Atalanta has always played its last home game of the year, called “the Christmas game”, wearing special kits, often with unique designs inspired by the local community. The kits used in the match are later auctioned for charity purposes.
• The club’s shield represents the Greek mythological heroine Atalanta.

Schedules and where to see the Atalanta BC-Athletic Club

Matchday 7 of the League Phase of the 2025/26 Champions League that faces Atalanta BC and Athletic Club will be played this Wednesday, January 21, at 9:00 p.m. at the Stadio di Bergamo.

It can be followed through Movistar Champions League in Spain. If you watch it from anywhere else in the world, here is an extensive list of television operators that offer the game.