Gasperini proud of Atalanta performance despite loss to Napoli

Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini said he was proud of his team and confident of the future after their performance in the 2-1 home loss to Napoli in Serie A on Saturday.

Atalanta opened the scoring with a penalty from Ademola Lookman but lost after Victor Osimhen and Eljif Elmas secured a 2-1 comeback victory.

"When you emerge from a game like this, against a Napoli side everyone can see, I leave here with the certainty we will have a good season," Gasperini told DAZN.

"This is a team that is growing, both technically and in fitness terms. We were up to the standard of Napoli and in some cases above them. We probably didn’t deserve to lose and were a little unlucky, but we emerge from this match with pride and confidence for the future."

Atalanta were in second place in the league with 27 points, before the late kickoff between AC Milan and Spezia. It is a far cry from last season when they finished eighth in Serie A and failed to get into Europe for the first time since Gasperini became coach in 2016.

"You always want to talk about results and positions in the table but we cannot think of repeating third place for three years in a row. We have players who left, others who are injured, so we are renovating the squad, but the path to consistency is with the style of football," he added.

"The team is growing and improving every week, we already saw tonight big improvements from the game against Atalanta so that bodes well for the future. We’ll set ourselves no limits.”

Atalanta play at Lecce on Wednesday before hosting Inter on Nov. 13 in the last game before the World Cup break.