Daniel McDonnell: Atalanta enjoy their greatest moment as Dublin warms up for Euro 2028 challenge
UEFA Legends, from left, Diego Forlan, Gaizka Mendieta, Barry Murphy and Robert Pirés after the Legends match on day 2 of the Fan Festival before the UEFA Europa League 2023/24 final. Photo by Stephen McCarthy - Sportsfile/UEFA via Getty Images
For fans of Atalanta, Dublin will now enter their history in the same way that Lisbon is wrapped into Celtic’s story and any mention of Istanbul brings Liverpool followers to a happy place.
It will become a byword for happiness, the place where a club with only one major honour on their CV, a Coppa Italia success in 1963, crossed the threshold to another level with a masterclass that paid a compliment to the abilities of their coach Gian Piero Gasperini, a charismatic grey-haired Italian who paraded the same technical area that Giovanni Trapattoni used to inhabit.
