Gian Piero Gasperini: ‘We have to fight real racism’

Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini addressed the racist abuse aimed at Dusan Vlahovic saying  he believes ‘racism is a very serious thing and should not be confused with something else.’ There were ugly scenes at the end of Juve’s 2-0 win over La Dea, with a chorus of racist chants aimed at Serbian striker Vlahovic, referring to his ethnic origins. Speaking with Sky Sport Italia (as quoted by Sportface) after the game, Gasperini explained why he believes abuse should be differentiated between racism and ‘insults’:

“In Atalanta, Pasalic, Djimsiti, Ilicic, Sutalo and many players of that ethnicity played and we have to differentiate things: sometimes there are insults for other things, racism is a very serious thing and should not be confused with something else. There are other insults like ‘son of a bi***’ or ‘piece of s***,’ is that racism too? We have to fight real racism.”

“The match? We came in with a lot of injured players in the same department, we were in an emergency but the team played a very good match even after 1-0. These are matches like that, today the episodes were not favorable even though we created many chances. We played to win and one of our goals would have changed the game.

“The team is fine, we are regretful for the defeat given also the performance. But in front of us was a team that hardly makes mistakes when there are certain situations. We have to be satisfied with how the team is expressing itself and also with the standings, however, there are still 4 important games. The percentages are evident, all the points have their weight but we have to lead this final as we have always done.”