Barcelona vs. Atalanta (29 January 2025) First Name

January 28 (Reuters) -Barcelona defender Alejandro Balde may have inadvertently handed over his Side’s Champions League opponents Atalanta some extra motivation when he admitted he had never heard of their manager.

Balde was full of praise for Atalanta, who won last season’s Europa League, but was left blunted by an Italian journalist’s second question about their coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s playing style at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Atalanta is a fantastic team, I think they have a great season in Serie A,” Balde told journalists ahead of Wednesday’s game.

“And the other you said, who was that? The player? I haven’t heard who he was,” asked a confused looking Balde.

The reporter repeated his question about Gasperini, which did little to inform Balde.

“Who is it? I don’t know,” Balde admitted with a laugh and turned to an employee of Barcelona with who explained that it was the Atalanta manager.

“Oh, okay, the truth is that I had no idea. Well, I don’t know, I assume well, I don’t know, well, well.”

Atalanta, who has only lost once in their seven Champions League matches, is seventh in the position with 14 points and is sure of at least one end game.

Barca is number two and guaranteed somewhere in the last 16, regardless of the result against Gasperini’s side.

(Reporting Trevor Stynes ​​Editing Toby Davis)