Ademola Lookman and Sead Kolasinac are back to Atalanta training on the eve of a crucial Champions League match against Club Brugge. This means that the duo will be available for Atalanta today when La Dea meet Club Brugge in the second leg of the Champions League knockout playoff.
Eco di Bergamo correspondent, Giulia Mazzoleni reported that both players were spotted on the pitch for a training session at Atalanta’s training ground, yesterday afternoon.
Atalanta have endured a difficult couple of months and that has continued in the last seven days with Club Brugge in with a chance of surprise Round of 16 qualification this week, reports thestatszone.com.
Heading into the mini winter break in Italy, Atalanta were very much in the Serie A title race as they chased history but they have since collapsed in the league, have been knocked out in the Coppa Italia, and they are also behind in this UEFA Champions League tie.
Despite a 5-0 hammering of Hellas Verona about 10 days ago, suggesting they may have turned the corner, Atalanta backed up their defeat in Belgium last week by then being held to a goalless draw by Cagliari at the Gewiss Stadium at the weekend.
Club Brugge have pulled off results at the Janbreydelstadion against Aston Villa, Sporting CP, and Juventus in the league phase this season with the Belgian champions now earning themselves a knockout advantage thanks to their home form.
Last week, they took a 15th-minute lead via Ferran Jutgla before Mario Pasalic equalised for Atalanta before half-time. However, Club Brugge ensured they would travel to Italy with a one-goal lead thanks to a 94th-minute penalty scored by Gustaf Nilsson.
Atalanta are dealing with a few injury issues at the back ahead of the visit of Club Brugge this week. Former Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac remains sidelined alongside Italy international Giorgio Scalvini, whilst key attacker Lookman deals with a knee injury, too.
Ahead of the second-leg and their trip to Bergamo this week, Club Brugge have a fully fit and available squad with no fresh injury concerns or suspension issues so they will be able to name an unchanged eleven for this one.
Atalanta have been underwhelming and have almost already blown their entire season in the last couple of months. Their goalless draw with Cagliari the other day means that they have managed just three victories in their last 13 matches across all competitions with two of those three wins being by five goals to nil. They now face a Club Brugge side that will sense a chance to hit a vulnerable Atalanta side on the counter-attack but, with home advantage, Atalanta must surely be capable of taking this to extra-time at least.
Meanwhile, seven-time European champions Milan suffered a 1-0 loss at De Kuip in Rotterdam in the first leg last week as Feyenoord chased a rare UEFA Champions League Round of 16 appearance.
AC Milan experienced an extremely busy January with Sergio Conceicao replacing Paulo Fonseca and the Rossoneri immediately winning the Supercoppa Italiana in Saudi Arabia before lots of transfer business with the arrivals of the likes of Kyle Walker and Santiago Gimenez.
The latter joined from Feyenoord and has now scored two goals in two games in Serie A for AC Milan, with Conceicao’s side sandwiching their defeat in the Netherlands last week with hard-fought victories against strugglers Empoli and Hellas Verona.
Feyenoord, even with the absence of the aforementioned Gimenez, continued to work hard and get themselves a result in Rotterdam last week as Igor Paixao notched a third-minute winner for Brian Priske’s side who have been much better in home conditions in this competition.
That win was backed up by another disappointing performance and result in the Eredivisie at the weekend as they shared a goalless draw with NAC Breda the other day as they sit fourth in the Dutch top-flight behind Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, and AZ Alkmaar.
Rafael Leao has received criticism for a lack of work rate in the last month or so and Conceicao, who said Leao would become one of the best players in the world under his management, now has a big question to answer as to whether he sticks with the mercurial Leao.
In other games, Bayern Munich will host Glasgow Celtic, whom they beat 2-1 in the first leg, while Benfica hold a 1-0 advantage over Monaco going into their decisive leg in the Principality.
