ITALY – OCTOBER 18: Atalanta BC manager Maurizio Sarri looks on before the Serie A match between AC Milan and Atalanta BC at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on October 18, 2026 in Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
Maurizio Sarri hopes Atalanta’s fightback in their 3-2 defeat at Milan can “boost our confidence” but believes Adrien Rabiot should have been sent off for abusing the referee.
La Dea looked 3-0 down to goals from Goncalo Ramos, Adrien Rabiot and Mario Gila at the San Siro in the first hour of this match, even as Marco Carnesecci saved another penalty from Goncalo Ramos.
The game completely changed when Gianluca Gaetano came off the bench, he scored and then helped set up a second for Nikola Krstovic to set up a tense finale, only for a tough Mike Maignan to deny Davide Zappacosta to pull it back to 3-3.
Sarri saw a positive Atalanta response
“In the first half we lacked intensity in our press and we struggled with that,” admitted Sarri on Sky Sport Italia.
“Having said that, the first really dangerous step was us and Krstovic, and then things went against us.”
Atalanta saw their appeals for a Kony De Winter handball denied, but Sarri had other complaints as well, although the hosts were awarded two penalties for infringements.
“On Rowe’s cross I thought De Winter took it with his hand. I saw today that there are players who can tell the referees to go off themselves. I showed it to the referee and he said the player was penalised. If I say that, I was sent off quite rightly.”
The reference was to Rabio, who scored Milan’s second goal a few minutes later.
“I didn’t like the way the referee handled the game in general, but that happens every time you deal with Chiffi. It’s a shame we didn’t get the points because the momentum was with us in the end.
“We could have aimed for more than even a draw, but if the performance is what we saw in the last half hour, it at least gives us a boost of confidence.”
On Thursday evening, Milan and Atalanta won, while the Rossoneri defeated RB Salzburg 4-0 in the Europa League and Bergamo defeated Paphos 3-1 in the Conference League.
Their physical fatigue levels should therefore be fairly similar, although La Dea saw their injury crisis go from bad to worse with Sead Kolasinac’s early limp.
This forced Sarri to give a big debut to Relja Obric, who immediately awarded a penalty for handball.
“Everything that came off the bench was positive and reactive, even some were introduced when we were already starting to change the game.”