Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini revealed Sunday he thought he would die as he suffered coronavirus symptoms when the Italian team played their Champions League match against Valencia in March.
Gasperini told Gazzetta Dello Sport that he was sick when Atalanta beat Valencia 4-3 behind closed doors at the Mestalla on March 10, to reach the quarter-finals with an 8-4 aggregate victory.
“The day before the Valencia game I was sick, the afternoon of the game worse. I didn’t look good on the bench,” said Gasperini.
“It was March 10th. The following two nights in Zingonia (Atalanta’s training centre) I slept little. I didn’t have a fever, but I felt shattered, like I had one of 40.
“An ambulance passed every two minutes. There is a hospital nearby. It seemed like a war zone. At night I thought: ‘if I go in there, what happens to me’?
“I can’t go now, I have so many things to do … I was saying it jokingly, to lighten things. But I really thought…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
