Bologna vs Atalanta preview - Colantuono plays down European talk

Posted Friday, March 28, 2014 by PA

Atalanta head coach Stefano Colantuono is playing down excited chatter about an overdue return to Europe despite watching his side rocket up the Serie A table this month.

The Nerazzurri beat Livorno 2-0 on Wednesday to secure their fifth straight victory - their best streak since the 1990-91 season, when they last competed in the UEFA Cup.

Catching sixth-placed Parma, and then Inter Milan, will take some doing but in Saturday night's opponents Bologna they face a team short on confidence and struggling to avoid the drop.

Livorno are down there too, and after overseeing the midweek triumph Colantuono feels his players are well equipped to keep another relegation-battling club at arm's length.

He told the Corriere dello Sport: "Four points more and we're in Europe? I'm not looking at it that way.

"Now we have to look at Bologna, and then Sassuolo, so we can continue along this path.

"Playing a game like that against a team who really need points shows that we have really matured."

Riccardo Cazzola, Davide Brivio and Maxi Moralez are all injured and unavailable for the trip to the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara while full-back Yohan Benalouane serves a one-match suspension.

Bologna boss Davide Ballardini has urged his players to raise their game and pull clear of the bottom three with a second consecutive home win.

A 3-0 defeat at Chievo saw the Rossoblu take a backward step following the uplift of the gritty 1-0 victory over Cagliari that followed a 2-1 loss at Livorno.

Ballardini said: "The defeat hurts, we played the game with the wrong attitude. We fell to defeat today just like we did at Livorno.

"But we raised our game after the Livorno game and we will do so again."

Panagiotis Kone and Francesco Della Rocca are sidelined for Bologna, who won this fixture 2-1 last season and 3-1 in the 2011-12 campaign which saw them finish in ninth place.