Overview
Despite finishing the group stage with 2 points more and being two places above Borussia Dortmund, thereby winning the right to play the second leg at home, Atalanta fell into a difficult position after a 0-2 defeat in Germany last week.
After 2 consecutive defeats in Europe in January - against Athletic Bilbao and Union Saint-Gilloise - La Dea continued to lose empty-handed at Signal Iduna Park. Goals from Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier helped Dortmund take the upper hand.
Contrary to their impressive form in Serie A, the representative of Lombardy disappointed when they only launched 7 shots - their second lowest record in the last 42 Champions League matches.
Now, Atalanta must find a way to become the first team to reverse the situation after losing the first leg by a 2-goal margin in the knockout round since Liverpool's legendary comeback against Barcelona in 2019.
Despite the defeat at Dortmund, Raffaele Palladino's team still had a sublime February. They won a ticket to the Coppa Italia semi-finals and continued to climb high in the Serie A standings.
Atalanta is unbeaten in the domestic arena this year with 8 wins and 2 draws. Last weekend, they even defeated defending champion Napoli. Two headers in the second half by Mario Pasalic and Lazar Samardzic helped La Dea come back, moving closer to the top 4 target.
A few hours before Atalanta celebrated, Dortmund also had a dramatic chase when Fabio Silva scored late, helping his team draw 2-2 against RB Leipzig.
That result makes Niko Kovac's team 8 points behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. This weekend, they will enter Der Klassiker and may even reunite with Bayern in the Champions League.
The team that won the European championship in 1997 is aiming for their seventh appearance in the round of 16 in the last 8 seasons. History supports them when Dortmund has won all 10 UEFA matches when leading by 2 goals after the first leg.
The two encounters with Atalanta in the Europa League season 2017-2018 also closed with a total score of 4-3 in favor of the German representative. However, the away record in Italy is not too convincing as they have lost 5/8 recent trips.
Moreover, Dortmund has conceded 4 goals away in the Champions League this season - against Manchester City and Juventus. Therefore, despite holding a great advantage, Kovac understands that the away trip to Bergamo still contains many risks.
Personnel situation
Like the first leg, Atalanta continues to be without the service of two important strikers, Giacomo Raspadori and Charles De Ketelaere. Notably, De Ketelaere once made his mark in 6 goals and created 20 chances in the group stage.
In addition to these two absences, Raffaele Palladino almost has the strongest squad in hand. Ederson was given a break last weekend due to a minor muscle problem and is likely to return to the starting lineup.
On the other side, Dortmund suffered a major loss in defense in the first leg when Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Sule, Emre Can and Filippo Mane were all absent. This forced Niko Kovac to give the opportunity to start in the Champions League for the first time to young talent Luca Reggiani.
Good news for the Bundesliga representative is that Schlotterbeck has returned to full training and can play, although his ability to play the full 90 minutes is still open.
Expected lineup:
Carnesecchi, Kossounou, Djimsiti, Ahanor, Zappacosta, Ederson, De Roon, Bernasconi, Pasalic, Zalewski, Scamacca.
Kobel, Anton, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini, Ryerson, Nmecha, Bellingham, Svensson, Brandt, Beier, Guirassy.
The match between Atalanta and Dortmund takes place at 0:45 am on February 26 (Vietnam time).
