Atalanta deserves to win against Juventus, says Gasperini after 2-2 draw

After playing a 2-2 draw against defending champions Juventus on Sunday, Atalanta head coach Gian Piero Gasperini said he is proud of the performance but also upset because his side deserved the win.

Atalanta led twice in the game through Duvan Zapata and Ruslan Malinovskiy's goals. Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo's second spot-kick in the 90th minute changed the direction of the match as they were trailing by 1-2 in their home game.

"I'm definitely more proud. We played great in the first half and in the second half there was a comeback by Juve. But with our play, we managed to take the lead and play a great game anyway. Of course, we are also upset because we deserved to win. But, in football, your performance is not always enough," Goal.com quoted Gasperini as saying.

"We were ahead until the last minute and we did everything to deserve the win," he added.

Gasperini said his ultimate aim is to qualify for the Champions for the second successive time by finishing under top-four.

"We said qualifying for the Champions League for the second year in a row was our ultimate aim, so after that finishing third or second is about prestige, but the objective remains the same," Gasperini said.

"I thought we started quite strong this season, then, of course, the Champions League took some energy out of us. The real points we dropped were in the games with Lazio, Juventus and Inter, but then we never did target the Serie A title," he added.

With six games left to play in Serie A, Atalanta are third in the table, nine points behind lead-runners Juventus. Atalanta will next face Brescia on Wednesday, July 15.

( With inputs from ANI )