Atalanta coach Gasperini had coronavirus during Valencia match

The Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini says he was ill on the day of his side's Champions League game against Valencia and that he has since tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies. 

The first leg of the Champions League tie between the two sides, played in Milan, has been called a "biological bomb" because of the effect it had on the spread of the novel coronavirus in the north of Italy, especially Bergamo, where Atalanta play. 

The second leg was played behind closed doors in Valencia. Gasperini has revealed he did not feel well when the game was played. Several Valencia players and staff later tested positive for coronavirus. 

“I felt ill the day before the Valencia game, then on the afternoon of the match I felt even worse,” Gasperini told La Gazzetta dello Sport, as translated by Football Italia. 

“If you look at the pictures, I did not look good on the bench. That was March 10. The two nights afterward, I did not sleep well. I didn’t have a fever, but I felt like I did.

“Every two minutes, an ambulance would go past, as there’s a hospital near the training ground. It sounded like a warzone. At night I would think, what will happen to me if I go into that hospital? I can’t go now, I have so much still to do…

“It was in a way a joke with myself to lighten the mood, but on the other hand, I really did think about that." 

Gasperini added: “I stayed at the Zingonia training ground for three weeks. When I did get back to my home in Turin, I always respected social distancing with my wife and children. As I never had a fever, I didn’t do the swab test, but 10 days ago the blood tests confirmed I had COVID-19.

“I have the antibodies, but that does not mean I am now immune.”