Tribal Football

Atalanta coach Gasperini furious with Club Brugge winner: They want us playing like penguins

Carlos Volcano
Atalanta coach Gasperini furious with Club Brugge winner: They want us playing like penguins
Atalanta coach Gasperini furious with Club Brugge winner: They want us playing like penguinsAction Plus
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was left stunned by Club Brugge's winner on Wednesday night.

Brugge won 2-1 the first-leg of this Champions League round 16 playoff thanks to an injury-time penalty won and converted by Gustaf Nilsson.

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“Evidently we are contaminating Europe as well, but the real tragedy is football is being contaminated,” Gasperini told Sky Italia.

“Listening to players and coaches, we all have a completely different idea of what represents a foul. The tragedy is that there everyone dives now to steal something, get a player booked or sneak a penalty.

“Football is now going in a direction that has nothing whatsoever to do with the sport. We have to accept this call, but I honestly no longer even understand the rules now and I certainly don’t like it.

“The trouble now is we all have to run around like penguins, with our arms glued to the sides of our bodies, jump like penguins too. The rules are now so far away from what the players say or think. Football is becoming a completely different sport.”

He added, “It was a bad start tonight, but we did improve. You cannot always be at your best and have to take the opponents into account too, but in the second half the biggest chances to score were ours and in the end we lost.”