Atalanta coach Gasperini happy after Barcelona draw

Ederson and Mario Pasalic struck for La Dea after Barca had gone ahead through Lamine Yamal and Ronald Araujo.

“There is no comparison, we are in the Champions League,” Gasperini said afterwards.

“We will play against either Sporting or Brugge, it’s not that we aren’t used to it, we played in the Champions League for four years. This type of game helps the team so much, it’s how we interpret it.”

He continued: “We are Atalanta, we must always be happy to play in the Champions League, to measure ourselves against the best teams in Europe. Now it’s only Bayern of the big teams who we’re missing. For us, it’s all been a great experience, to hear our fans singing in these stadiums.”

On their playoff opponents, Gasperini said: “Brugge and Sporting are strong teams, we have faced the Biancoverdi four times already. De Ketelaere has been telling us that the Belgians are coming off twenty consecutive successes. It was impossible to avoid a difficult team before now, let alone after.”