Gray in the Calcio Sky

BERGAMO, WEDNESDAY — The sky in the world of "calcio" or Italian football feels gloomy after two teams from the Lombardy region, Atalanta and AC Milan, were eliminated from the 2024-2025 Champions League. The exit of both teams ensures that the hope of the Italian League to send five representatives to the most prestigious inter-club competition in Europe next season is gone.

Atalanta, who were ninth in the group stage, were eliminated 5-2 on aggregate by Club Brugge, who qualified for the playoffs in 24th place. The negative result for the “Goddess” followed in the footsteps of the “Red Devils” aka AC Milan who were eliminated by Feyenoord after losing 2-1 on aggregate.

The certainty that both teams failed to reach the round of 16 was established in Lombardy. Milan reflected at San Siro Stadium. About two hours later, it was Atalanta's turn to be struck with disappointment at Gewiss Stadium.

Atalanta were already three goals down at half-time to Brugge, the Belgian representatives. Braces from teenage right winger Chemsdine Talbi in the third and 25th minutes were complemented by goals from centre forward Ferran Jutgla (45+3).

Atalanta briefly opened up hope thanks to a goal from Ademola Lookman at the beginning of the second half. However, it was also Lookman who shattered his team's spirit by failing to execute a penalty in the 61st minute. The 1-3 defeat at home underscored Brugge's inferior performance after also losing 1-2 in Belgium.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was upset with Lookman's decision to take the penalty. The primary penalty takers for La Dea, according to Gasperini, are Charles De Ketelaere and Mateo Retegui.

In addition to just entering at the beginning of the second half, Lookman is also considered by Gasperini to have a very poor record in penalty training sessions with the team.

"Lookman shouldn't have taken the penalty. He's one of the worst penalty takers I've ever seen," Gasperini was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He has had very little success in executing penalties during practice. Retegui and De Ketelaere were there, but Lookman was very enthusiastic after scoring a goal and decided to take the ball. That attitude is something I do not like at all," he added.

In this season's journey, De Ketelaere has only taken one penalty and has been able to carry out his duties well. Retegui recorded a penalty success rate of 50 percent. He scored two goals from the penalty spot from four opportunities.

Despite Lookman's failure, the Goddess has not been blessed with "lady luck" in every penalty opportunity. Retegui failed to score a penalty against Arsenal and Torino, so the match ended in a goalless draw. Likewise, Mario Pasalic has recorded one penalty failure.

After failing to score a penalty, Lookman actually did everything to make up for his mistake. Despite only playing for 45 minutes, Lookman was the player who fired the most shots in the match.

Lookman had seven shots with a record of 1.29 expected goals (xG). However, the effectiveness of Lookman and his teammates was very poor. Of the three shots on target produced by Lookman, only one shook the net of Brugge goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.

In total, Atalanta had 30 shots. Of those chances, they produced 3.28 xG. That xG figure confirms Atalanta's poor finishing.

On the other hand, Brugge also have Mignolet's brilliant performance to thank. The 36-year-old goalkeeper made nine saves, including Lookman's penalty kick. That number has far exceeded his average of three saves per game in the Champions League this season.

While the forwards were ineffective, Atalanta's poor performance was compounded by the red card for defender and captain Rafael Toloi three minutes from time. Gasperini admitted Toloi's reckless challenge cost his team.

"We are disappointed, but Atalanta deserve to go out of the Champions League with pride. We played well against teams like Real Madrid, Arsenal and Barcelona," said Gasperini.

Meanwhile, Milan, who were chasing a two-goal margin victory, could only draw 1-1 against Feyenoord. Milan's disappointment was clearly worse than Atalanta's.

The reason is, Milan has brought in Feyenoord's striker and goal source, Santiago Gimenez, in the last winter transfer market. Gimenez, who scored five goals for Feyenoord in the qualifying round, opened Milan's lead with a tap-in when the match had not even been going on for a minute.

In addition, Feyenoord also just fired Brian Priske from the coaching seat last week. The Dutch club eliminated Milan with interim coach Pascal Bosschaart.

Despite appearing aggressive with 18 shots compared to Feyenoord's six, the Red Devils failed to increase their lead. Their efforts to add a goal were hampered after left wing-back Theo Hernandez received a second yellow card in the 51st minute for diving.

Feyenoord were able to take advantage of their numerical advantage. They scored an equalizer through Julian Carranza's header in the 73rd minute. It was Feyenoord's only shot on target at the San Siro.

"We started well and scored straight away. It looked like Feyenoord couldn't hurt us, but things can change in a matter of seconds in football. We are very disappointed," Gimenez was quoted as saying on UEFA's website.

However, Milan coach Sergio Conceicao was reluctant to blame his players' individual performances. He took responsibility for Milan's failure to meet the target of qualifying for the last 16.

"We should have played stronger mentally. I am responsible, not Theo (Hernandez). He has given a lot to Milan and I have made many mistakes in my career," said Conceicao.

"We are very angry. Until Theo's red card, Feyenoord did not know how to reach our goal. This result is very disappointing and a failure for us," he added.

The collapse of Atalanta and Milan has dashed Italy's hopes of finishing in the top two in the 2024-2025 UEFA competition coefficient rankings. With a collection of 17,687 points, UEFA has confirmed that the two highest-ranked teams in European competition this season will get a quota of five teams in the 2025-2026 Champions League.

The Italian League is struggling to compete with the Spanish League (18,035 points) and the English League (20,892 points) which already have more teams in the last 16.

England are represented by Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa in the last 16, while Spain has Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Both leagues' quotas could increase following the result of Real Madrid's duel against Manchester City on Thursday (20/2/2025) early morning WIB.

Meanwhile, Italy only has Inter Milan in the round of 16. Italy's chances of adding ambassadors in the Champions League knockout phase depend on the results of Juventus who must beat PSV Eindhoven in the playoff match.