The textual chronicle
In today's derby, the tail light in the standings hosts the Goddess in search of confirmation to stay hooked to the European dream. Teams motivated to get three valuable points.
Atalanta arrives away, at the home of Cremonese, strong of the success found against Empoli. A victory long sought in order not to miss the train that leads to Europe, after a period certainly not lucky. For the team, winning the derby means getting three points of vital importance for their Champions League aspirations. The first leg was drawn, with a 1-1. Gian Piero Gasperini, coach of the Dea, summoned 20 players. The Dutchman Teun Koopmeiners will not participate in the trip, as he did not recover the first-degree injury of the left femoral biceps accused against Udinese. Also absent are Djimsiti, Vorlicky and Hateboer. At the "Zini" the primary objective of the team is to confirm itself higher and higher in the standings and, above all, with a good margin of distance from the opponents.
The hosts, last in the standings, desperately need these three points to be able to continue to hope for the championship. Despite the good results in the Italian Cup, the gray and red can not find success in the league to move away from the bottom of the standings. So far they have won only one game, the famous match against Roma at the end of February, 2-1. On the eve, Ballardini, coach of Cremonese: "Head only to Atalanta, then we will think about the Cup", and adds "Meanwhile, I emphasize that having arrived at this point in the Italian Cup is a merit. Then, it is true, in front of us we will find important games, where there are points that count at stake. Now the focus goes to the match with Atalanta. We face one difficulty at a time."
On the possible formation in the field: "There will be no Ferrari, Chiriches and Okereke. These are certainly not available. Then we have the doubt of Acella, let's see if he can recover. We can't afford to think about Wednesday and the Coppa Italia. If only for a second we thought about the next game it means that we would not have understood anything. We play against a team with which it is a moment to make a bad impression if you are not gritty, angry, attentive and aggressive".
Probable Atalanta line-up (3-4-1-2): Musso; Toloi, Palomino, Scalvini; Maehle, De Roon, Ederson, Zappacosta; Pasalic; Hojlund, Zapata. All. Gasperini
Probable Cremonese formation (3-4-3): Carnesecchi; Ferrari, Bianchetti, Vasquez; Sernicola, Benassi, Pickel, Meitè, Valeri; Tsadjout, Dessers. All. Ballardini
(GettyImages)
Davide Ballardini and Gian Piero Gasperini