Alejandro Garnacho’s Sly Atalanta Dig Backfires As Match Winner Responds After Chelsea Loss
Garnacho claimed he had not watched the Italian club play in two years.
Atalanta hero Charles De Ketelaere brutally hit back at Alejandro Garnacho after last night’s 2-1 victory against Chelsea.
De Ketelaere Responds To Garnacho Quip
Garnacho stirred up anger inside the Italian club’s camp after admitting he had not watched the Blues’ Champions League opponents play in two years.
His blase comments quickly led newspapers to accuse him of “snobbery”, while supporters were unimpressed.
The forward, who moved to Stamford Bridge from Manchester United last summer, was subsequently named on the bench in Bergamo but failed to make an impact after being brought on in the 67th minute.
Joao Pedro made the breakthrough after 25 minutes, but Atalanta hit back shortly after half-time through Gianluca Scamacca.
Former Tottenham target De Ketelaere then completed the turnaround with less than 10 minutes left to play, powering his effort beyond Robert Sanchez with the aid of a wicked deflection.
Having enjoyed the last laugh, the match winner issued a fiery response to Garnacho’s dismissive claim.
“Garnacho said yesterday he didn’t know much about Atalanta, perhaps he knows about us now!” De Ketelaere said. “He should’ve known from Dublin, winning the Europa League.
“If we want to play these games again next season, then we have to climb back up the Serie A table.”
De Ketelaere’s Performance In Numbers
Unsurprisingly, the Italian media praised De Ketelaere for his untouchable display.
He recorded 49 touches and mustered up two shots, one of which was, of course, on target. The tricky 24-year-old also provided the devilish cross from which Scamacca headed home to equalise 10 minutes after the restart.
According to Sofascore, De Ketelaere completed three key passes, as well as 27 from his 31 overall attempts. The result was an unparalleled 10 match rating, underlining his integral role in Atalanta’s impressive victory.
However, fresh from his match-winning heroics, he urged his team-mates to try to win “every game”.
“It is wonderful, the fans are so fired up too, it’s a great evening,” he told Sky Sport. “We have to go forward with this confidence, it’s not possible we can play like we did on Saturday and then win tonight.
“That means we have to be strong mentally, then we can win every game.
“We were coming off three victories before that bad defeat, but we know that we have a lot of quality. In football you have to prove it every single time and we showed that today, it really helps our confidence.
“Even against a direct opponent, as Chelsea were also on 10 points, we showed great quality and now want to win the next two games.”
Dan Davis
Dan is an experienced sports journalist and part-time lecturer. An expert on Serie A and Italian football, he has produced content for the likes of the Daily Mail, Reach PLC, GiveMeSport, FourFourTwo and GRV Media. While Channel 4's iconic Football Italia was a bit before his time, the nostalgia - and pastries - fuelled his love of all things Calcio.
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