Atalanta’s Matteo Retegui apologises for penalty miss against Arsenal

Atalanta striker Matteo Retegui was a key feature of the Serie A side’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal in Bergamo, as La Dea started their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw.

The biggest chance of a rather cagey and cautious game fell to Retegui, who took a penalty in the second half. But David Raya saved the spot-kick and also brilliantly denied him on the rebound, making sure that the Gunners kept the scoreline at 0-0 and that is how it ended as well.

Having been in good form season, Retegui has now spoken to Sky Italia about the game and incident involving his penalty save.

He said, as relayed by TMW: “I feel sorry for the lads, we played a great match. I missed the penalty, but you learn from your mistakes. Now let’s focus on the next match. After the missed penalty, the whole team came to cheer me up, even the coach after leaving the pitch. We really wanted to give the three points to all the fans”.

He was asked about whether he could have done better during the penalty and Retegui said: “Yes, yes. The goalkeeper made a great save, but on the second ball I made a mistake, I didn’t see him because he got up quickly and quickly.”

Speaking about it further, he said: “I didn’t see the goalkeeper who rose quickly. When I saw that it rose I focused on the ball and I didn’t see the goalkeeper. I’m very sorry, it was important to start with a victory.”

A draw should go down as a decent result for Atalanta, who have a relatively easy path to the next round of the competition and every point is crucial.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN