Palladino angry after 3-1 Atalanta collapse : ‘Performance is unacceptable’

VERONA, ITALY – DECEMBER 06: Raffaele Palladino, Head Coach of Atalanta, speaks during an interview prior to the Serie A match between Hellas Verona FC and Atalanta BC at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi on December 06, 2025 in Verona, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

Raffaele Palladino was furious after Atalanta’s 3-1 defeat to Hellas Verona, partly for the controversial penalty call, but mainly at his own players. ‘This performance is unacceptable.’

The third Verona goal was particularly controversial, as Lazar Samardzic was protesting for an Armal Bella-Kotchap handball when they went on the counter to score with Antoine Bernede.

VAR examined the footage and decided that while Bella-Kotchap certainly leaned towards the ball, his fingertips did not make sufficient contact to change its direction, so they would not recommend an On-Field Review and change the decision that was made on the pitch.

Palladino stunned by Atalanta setback

“I never talk about referees, because to err is human, but really the touch is too obvious to ignore,” Palladino told Sky Sport Italia.

“You can clearly see the touch. VAR was meant to simplify things, but it is making them more complicated, talking about whether the ball changed direction or not. What does that matter? It is obvious that his fingertips touch the ball. That changes the course of a game, their third goal would’ve been disallowed and we’d have a penalty for potentially 2-1.”

La Dea had seemingly found their form with three consecutive victories between Serie A, the Champions League and Coppa Italia.

What they did not expect therefore was to find themselves 3-0 down at the Stadio Bentegodi against rock bottom Verona, who hadn’t won a single game this season.

Rafik Belghali, Giovane and Bernede were on target, and the late Gianluca Scamacca penalty was not enough to turn this situation around.

“In any case, our first half was truly terrible, so we take responsibility for that, we apologise to our fans. We didn’t understand the type of match that we needed to play,” confessed Palladino.

“We knew Verona would have intensity and focus on the duels, as they are the team statistically with the least average possession in Serie A this season. They were always going to be direct with vertical passes, but we got the attitude entirely wrong, we didn’t understand we had to adapt to their approach.

“We were sluggish. It’s probably my fault, I wasn’t able to transmit the right focus. Now we’ve got to lick our wounds, analyse the match, and ensure this never happens again to my team. When we did react, it was too late to turn it around.

“We can only apologise to our fans, because this was an opportunity to climb back up the table.”

This is not the result that Atalanta wanted going into next week’s Champions League showdown with Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea, especially after three consecutive victories in all competition, but perhaps that big match coming up distracted them.

“I honestly can’t explain what happened tonight. After the first half against Napoli, I saw great responses, I saw no signals that the team wasn’t taking this seriously, or was drained by the previous matches,” noted Palladino.

“If I had sensed that, I would’ve taken action, but it’s inexplicable, we must analyse and get back to the team of the last three games. This performance was too ugly to be Atalanta, we’ve got to shelve it and move on.

“I am the leader of this team and I cannot accept it, we need a winning mentality, not of losers. This game may well help us to grow, because a good slap in the head is valuable sometimes, but I’ve got to let them realise this is not acceptable. I won’t stand for having the wrong attitude, showing less intensity. We can lose, but not like this.”