Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini admits Bologna deserved their victory on Saturday.

Bologna won 2-0 impressively against La Dea.

Gasperini said, “Bologna's goal changed our values on the pitch. They were very good while we were forced to try to make up for ourselves, but we didn't succeed.

“In the first half we had the opportunity to unlock the game and put it on the right track, but we didn't do it. We had some difficulties in the middle of the park with the absences of (Toon) Kopmainers and (Mario) Pasalic, which created problems for us in recovering the ball and building things up.

“Despite everything, we played a good game in the first part of the match, while in the second half we struggled and despite having put so many offensive players on the pitch we weren't able to even it out.

“Points are lost because the teams behind have grown a lot and the ones ahead have dropped off a bit."