Sarri Prepares for Tough Atalanta Match Against Hapoel

Maurizio Sarri is not dressing this up. Atalanta’s Conference League play-off is finely balanced, and he expects Thursday night to be anything but comfortable.

After a goalless first leg at the New Balance Arena, Atalanta and Hapoel Tel Aviv head into the return in Hungary with everything on the line and no away-goal cushion to lean on.

“We saw in the first leg it’ll be a difficult match,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia, via TuttoMercatoWeb. “We have to be convinced we can do it. Clearly without becoming presumptuous. We want to play in a European competition. It’ll be tough against a team in great physical condition.”

That last line hung in the air. Hapoel have already gone through two qualifying rounds, knocking out Ludogorets and GKS Katowice, and arrive battle-hardened. Atalanta, for all their technical edge, know they are in a real contest.

De Ketelaere back, but only in doses

There is at least one piece of good news. Charles De Ketelaere is available again. But only just.

“He’s trained very little after the small adductor problem,” Sarri admitted. The Belgian featured for half an hour in the league and is not yet ready to shoulder a full 90 minutes in Europe.

“His usage will have to be partial,” Sarri said. “I don’t know whether to start him or bring him on, also because we don’t know how long the match will last.”

It is a classic knockout dilemma. Use his creativity from the start and risk burning him out if the game drags into extra time, or hold him back as a potential game-changer when legs are heavy and spaces open?

Sarri is clearly still weighing it up.

Scamacca or Krstovic – or both?

The debate up front is just as open. Gianluca Scamacca and Nikola Krstovic are pushing each other, and Sarri is in no rush to declare a fixed hierarchy.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said of his centre-forward choice. “They’re doing well and both seem to be improving. Over the season they’ll alternate based on who is in better shape, then we’ll also play them together.”

That last hint is intriguing. A tight, tense European tie might not sound like the obvious moment to unleash a two-striker system, but Sarri has left the door open. If Atalanta chase a goal late on, the sight of Scamacca and Krstovic together would not surprise.

For now, though, it is a straight shoot-out for the starting shirt.

Hapoel’s blueprint unlikely to change

Sarri is not expecting Elyaniv Barda to spring surprises. Hapoel’s game plan in Bergamo was clear: stay compact, then explode into space.

“They gather well and then break well,” Sarri said. “I don’t think they’ll change their attitude much, we’ll see.”

The second leg, played at a neutral venue in Hungary rather than in Israel, adds another layer of strangeness to a tie that already feels edgy. No true home advantage, no familiar surroundings, just 90 minutes (or more) to decide who moves into the group stage.

Atalanta will see more of the ball. Hapoel will wait, then run. One mistake in transition could tilt the entire evening.

Sarri’s defensive warning

Behind all the selection questions, Sarri’s biggest concern is structural. His defensive unit, he insists, is still a work in progress under his demanding positional play.

“It’s still lacking, there’s no point saying otherwise today,” he said of how his defenders are absorbing his ideas.

Then came the more pointed warning.

“The most difficult moment will be when they think they know how to do certain things and instead they still aren’t able to.”

It was an honest, almost blunt assessment. The risk, in a tie this finely balanced, is obvious: one misread press, one mistimed step up, and Hapoel’s runners are away.

Atalanta stand 90 minutes from the Conference League proper. Belief is there, Sarri insists. So is the danger. Which side of that line they land on in Hungary will say a lot about where this European campaign is really heading.